I'm not exactly sure what I expected from All Good Things but what I got certainly wasn't it. The film stars Ryan Gosling (whom I loved in Half Nelson) and Kirsten Dunst. Both actors gave good performances with Dunst surprisingly the standout. Over the course of the movie she morphs from innocent to tired and weary very well.
The interesting thing is that this film is made of several parts. Without giving away too much, the first part is a love story that is quite good and Gosling and Dunst have great chemistry. Subtly, the good times start to give way to a suspenseful psychological mess. The director makes some really great choices that artfully hint at where the movie is headed and the unknown problems Gosling's character is dealing with.
All Good Things begins to struggle towards last third of the film. It's hard to blame anyone for this because the film is based on true events - true events that are really bizarre. Stringing the film together would have been a difficult task for anyone. I think that it probably could have been accomplished a bit better if the story was not told by Gosling's character over the course of a court hearing. I've mentioned this before - I hate stories told in any sort of flashback sequence.
The Town was a slick Hollywood action movie. There were some good things about it and I was entertained, but it is not the type of movie that I typically like. Affleck's workout scene was silly, the whole "bad guy with a good heart" thing bothered me, the backstory (his old girlfriend and possible kid, his dad, the florist) was not hashed out enough for me to really care much about the character and the ending was beyond predictable. Nevertheless, the action scenes were pretty cool and I thought Affleck did a good job as both actor and director.
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Brandon, I get the Kevin Smith dislike. I think that Chasing Amy is the only movie of his that I ever go back to re-watch, though Dogma has it's moments. He is much funnier in interviews and Q&A sessions than his movies. An Evening with Kevin Smith is quite entertaining. I also wasn't a fan of The Ice Storm but I am conflicted about Little Children. I am a fan of Tom Perrotta (who wrote the book) and the movie stayed true to it until the ending. I understand why the movie would end that way, I guess. But I still don't like it. As for American Beauty, it still remains one of my favorite movies. It is too bad that Kevin Spacey has not done much else I've like since then. He was excellent in Moon though.
Also, it looks like Black Swan will be at Regal on Wednesday, which is exciting. Of course, Somewhere will not be playing around here yet. I am a Sophia Coppola fan and was really looking forward to seeing this film over the holidays.
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