This creepy Ryan Gosling role is nothing like Ken in ‘Barbie.’

In preparation for writing this article, I kept thinking how much of a shame it was that Ryan Gosling‘s All Good Things came out in 2010, several years before the sensational HBO documentary The Jinx. The gripping docuseries — also directed by All Good Things‘s Andrew Jarecki — about convicted serial murderer Robert Durst is an absolute jaw-dropper, especially with its twist ending. It could have been a great piece of research for Gosling to get deeper into the mind of the mercurial killer. However, even without it, Gosling turned in an unsettling and phenomenal performance as the real-life murderer in All Good Things.

Even having seen the real-life story of Durst unfold on the news over the years and knowing what we do now about the New York real estate family black sheep, Gosling’s performance is still terrifically twisted. He manages to capture the very particular idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of the oddball killer perfectly. With Gosling still getting critical acclaim for his Oscar-nominated role in the 2023 summer blockbuster Barbie, it’s high time to revisit his role in All Good Things, which is the polar opposite of the blissfully oblivious Ken. His portrayal of Durst is unsettling, smart, and utterly diabolical.

What Is The True Story Behind ‘All Good Things’?

For legal reasons (we imagine), the name Robert Durst is switched out for “David Marks” in All Good Things, but make no mistake, this movie is very much the true story of one Robert Alan Durst, the odd man out of his family’s vast Manhattan real estate empire. In All Good Things, David Marks is a man who is passed over as the heir to his father, Sanford Marks’ (Frank Langella), massive business. David then spirals into a life of darkness that ends with the murder of three people from 1971 to 2003, including his wife Katherine Marks (née McCarthy) (Kirsten Dunst), based on the real-life Kathleen McCormack. In real life, Durst would escape justice for her murder and the murder of two more people in Texas and California for close to 40 years before being found guilty of murder.

In All Good Things, after marrying Katherine in the early 1970s, David reluctantly goes into the family business and tries to have a normal life. Their marital problems start almost immediately, however, when David admits to his wife that he doesn’t want to have kids. Ryan Gosling is spot-on as a detached husband whose various mental issues have left him unsuited for a lofty position of power and influence — most notably, having witnessed the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy. He fears the commitment of children and inflicting the same kind of damage on his kids, which is a curious paradox, seeing as how he exhibits clear narcissistic and selfish behaviors. You wouldn’t think he would be terribly concerned with the emotional well-being of others, particularly his own potential offspring.

Gosling’s performance is eerily distant and aloof, very much like the Robert Durst that we see in The Jinx. He is unable to form close relationships with other people because of what would turn out to be sociopathic tendencies. Who better to play a wolf in sheep’s clothing than Gosling, right? And David is a very dangerous man in All Good Things, even if he appears somewhat harmless on the exterior. The haunting score of the film also accentuates a foreboding harbinger of what he will become as he struggles to maintain the facade of normalcy. There are several instances where Gosling mimics Durst’s tendency to mumble things aloud to himself, just like he would at the end of The Jinx, leaving audiences gobsmacked.

Ryan Gosling Nails His Portrayal of Robert Durst in ‘All Good Things’

As David grows more and more frustrated with the life he has been forced into, he and Katherine grow apart. When she is accepted to medical school, and he is still trying to stand on the shoulders of his father’s legacy, things take an ominous turn that would culminate with the first murder he would commit — although he would elude justice for over four decades. Gosling’s haunting portrayal of a man losing his grip on what little stability he has in his life is a great turn for the actor who had seldom done this kind of quiet intensity in a movie before. There is a palpable anger and rage boiling within Gosling’s reserved demeanor that is occasionally unleashed on his wife.

When Katherine decides to leave, David goes to extreme measures to prevent it, including murder. Gosling is extremely and disturbingly easy to believe as a sociopathic killer, and after his wife goes missing, there is little doubt that she won’t be found alive and even less doubt about who had a hand in it. However, proving it is a different matter — the Marks family has very deep pockets and a reputation to protect, and Katherine Marks (like the woman she was based on) remains a missing person for decades.

What Happened to Robert Durst in Real Life?

At the time All Good Things was made, Durst was still a free man living in Florida. But soon, the law would catch up to him, and in 2021, the then sickly 72-year-old man was convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of his good friend, Susan Berman. He would also be charged in the disappearance of his wife some 40 years prior, but died in prison before he could be sentenced for his crime. Ryan Gosling’s spine-tingling performance in All Good Things is a welcome departure for the typically charming performer, and is an excellent reminder that he can go as dark and twisted as you want him to, and then switch back to boundless Kenergy without a hitch.