All Good Things is loosely based on the real-life mystery surrounding the alleged crimes of real-estate heir Robert Durst and the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen. All of the names have been changed in the movie, but the meat of the story is based on Durst's life and the accusations against him. Gosling plays David Marks opposite Dunst as his wife, Katie. The movie is a fictionalized version of the crimes alleged to have taken place, told through voice over testimony of Gosling's character, during an unexplained court hearing.
In real life, Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack, went missing in 1982, and his best friend, Susan Berman, was murdered in 2000. Though Durst was investigated for his wife's disappearance, he was never charged. Now in his late 70s, Durst is currently on trial for Berman's murder, as CNN reports; the trial was postponed until April 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Director Andrew Jarecki gained high praise at Sundance in 2003, for an in-depth crime documentary about a wealthy New York family (via ABC News), so the subject matter of All Good Things was right up his alley. With Durst on trial, and Jarecki's 2015 documentary on his life — The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst — also available on HBO Max, the fictional version of this compelling mystery is worth a second chance.
