All Good Things

If you need prove that real life is more exciting than fiction, here it is.

This is also the story of Robert Durst. Andrew Jarecki, the documentarian that interviewed Durst for The Jinx, also made this film. Actually, this film is what set everything in motion. Durst was arrogant enough to contact Jarecki and offered to tell his side of the story. As we all know now, this got him in all sorts of trouble. Again.

The film tells a fictionalized account of, mainly but not only, the disappearance of Durst's wife. Here the couple is called David and Katherine Marks and all the other names have been changed, as well. But if you watch The Jinx you can clearly see that this was pretty much all that has been changed.

The film is solid and entertaining, but whereas the incoherent story telling of the latter telling of the events works well enough, here it just feels like it is jerking you in and out of the story. The Galveston events have been thrown in in little chunks, at seemingly random intervals.

Now, I have watched the two versions of events in reversed order and went into viewing All Good Things knowing what happened when and where things headed. This may have helped me with wrapping my head around the narrative. Especially since the murder and subsequent trial in Galveston, TX, were only skimmed over. I feel that this should have gotten more attention, seeing that the trial was what the film was actually anchored in.

The acting, from everyone involved, was very good. I am not usually a fan of Kirsten Dunst, but in here I liked her a lot. Ryan Gosling holds his own in a film that does not rely on his good looks, which is also nice to see (though not as nice as Ryan Gosling at this sexiest *sigh*).

Decent.

6/10

We're the Millers

Small time drug dealer David is mugged by a group of neighborhood punks that take his weed and all his money. As he is now in the red with the Brad, who he deals for, he has to agree to go to Mexico to pick up a large amount of drugs for "Pablo Chacon". Brad leads him to believe that he uses that name with the Mexicans.

As a cover, David rents a family - his stripping neighbor Rose, his dorky 'friend' Kenny and a girl crashing on couches, Casey - the Millers. Together they go to Mexico in an RV and pick up a massive amount of weed and go on their merry way. Unfortunately, the real Pablo Chacon shows up right after and together with a huge honcho he goes hunting for the 'family' that he believes stole his drugs.

The Millers, unaware that they are being followed, have trouble with their RV (of course) and get help from fellow RV travelers, the Fitzgeralds. The father Don works for the DEA (of course), so the Millers cannot wait to get away from them. When they go to pick up their fixed vehicle, the baddies have caught up with them but the family manages to flee.

They hit another bump in the road, when Kenny gets bitten by a huge spider (courtesy of the honcho's mother) and they have to stop for medical help right next to an amusement park (uhm...), there they run into the Fitzgeralds and Pablo again (of course). In the confusion that follows, they take out the bad guys, Mr. Fitzgerald finds out that they have been smuggling drugs but lets them go anyway. In return, David helps the DEA take down Brad and he and the rest of the Millers go into witness protection together (of course).

And, yes, David and Rose (real name Sarah) do fall in love.

6/10