Holiday thriller
Ryan Gosling & Kirsten Dunst get intense about one of Houston's most notoriousresidents
Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst in "All Good Things"
Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst when the marriage is unrraveling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst
A soon-to-be-released psychological thriller, All Good Things, loosely depicts the life of Robert Durst, whose storied past includes the disappearance of his wife, suspicions being cast his way after the unsolved execution of one of his close friends (after the investigation of his wife's disappearance was reopened and the friend, Susan Berman, was identified by authorities as someone who might have information on the case) and the killing of a neighbor.
Portrayed by Ryan Gosling, the unsympathetic Durst-modeled protagonist comes with a local connection: Durst remains free and resides in Houston.
"Bobby D.," the eldest son of the late New York real estate mogul Seymour Durst, was never tried for the disappearance of his wife or officially tied to the murder of Berman, and was acquitted of murder in 2003 after being charged in Galveston. His attorney persuaded the Galveston jury that he shot his neighbor, Morris Black, as self-defense, and in a panic, dismembered and disposed of Black's remains (which later washed ashore in various trash bags).
Durst has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and when arrested in Galveston, was posing as a woman named "Dorothy Ciner" (a name taken from a former classmate of Durst's). Released on a $300,000 bail, Durst fled and was arrested for shoplifting a sandwich, newspaper and Band-Aid near his alma mater, Lehigh University, in eastern Pennsylvania.
However, director Andrew Jarecki's $20 million movie rewinds the Durst tale to the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen, in 1982. Jarecki, the founder of Moviefone, composer of the theme music for Felicity and producer behind the complex 2003 suburban pedophilia documentary Capturing the Friedmans, recorded hundreds of hours of footage of actual people connected to the true story of Robert Durst.
Filmed between April and July 2008 in Connecticut and New York, All Good Things takes its name from a Vermont health store that Robert and his wife, Kathleen McCormack (portrayed in the movie by Kirsten Dunst under the name Katie McCarthy), opened in the 1970s.
Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerlings' screenplay is loosely based on their real life story, from the aristocratic Robert (renamed here as David Marks) meeting the stunning working-class medical student Katie, their escape from New York to Vermont and the unraveling of their marriage after being lured back to the city by David's father, culminating with Katie vanishing. The plot then races to 20 years later, when David's best friend disappears, and the case is reopened.
Indeed, the true Durst's life was a complicated one. He reportedly witnessed his mother's suicide off the roof of their Scarsdale mansion at a young age, frequented the Studio 54 club scene and spent time with John Lennon during a primal scream therapy stint, as documented in a profile of the fugitive heir by Ned Zeman in a 2002 Vanity Fair exposé.
Kirsten Dunst, of Bring It On and Marie Antoinette fame, described her initial reaction to the project to the New York Post:
I read the script alone in a hotel room and afterwards I was so frightened. The fact that a person could be hiding a monster inside, that someone could be so capable of love and do these awful things too. Then how [his father's] corporation hid all these truths. It's about how money can stop justice — that you can buy your way out of so many things was so insane to me."
Originally scheduled for a July 24, 2009 release through The Weinstein Company, the movie was interminably delayed and eventually Jarecki bought back the United States. distribution rights, which were then sold to Magnolia Pictures. The Dec. 3 release puts it into prime Oscar consideration.
"Because it is impossible to know what happened, we have not tried to replicate the history of the case," Jarecki told the Los Angeles Times, "but to capture the emotion and complexity of this unsolved mystery that has for years been kept hidden from public view."
Durst is far from hidden from public view in Houston, however. The New York heir maintains homes in Florida and Texas, where he resides in the storied Robinhood high-rise, and can be spotted at Rice Village café Croissant Brioche.
Back in New York, the Durst family is prepared to take Jarecki to court for the depiction of their family in All Good Things. Attorney Richard Emery sent a letter on Sept. 8 to Magnolia Pictures and Jarecki, stating plans to sue, taking issue with the film's depiction with the family as collaborators in the prostitution and drug circles that surrounded the still-seedy Times Square of the 1970s.
The Durst Organization's 11 million square feet of commercial and residential space in New York City is currently overseen by Douglas Durst, Robert's younger brother, who reigned over the development of the Conde Nast building in Times Square in the 1990s and Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, and recently won a competition for an equity stake in 1 World Trade Center.
