Oooh I love
a good crime story. Especially a true story. As you know, the ghoulish side of
me relishes in a good true crime story. Now don’t tut or roll your eyes (that
means you Mom) –it’s just a side of me that hasn’t quite grown up. You know,
when we were kids we loved to sit in the dark, around a campfire if you grew up
in that kind of environment or in a fort made of duvets with torches and tell
each other scary stories. It grew up a bit that’s all. But its basic tastes
didn’t change. Oh come on. You remember how we all swore those “legends” we
told each other “really happened” and the thrill that went down our spines when
we thought about it. Now, in the 21st century the world is
“disenchanted” as it were, there is no more magic or mystery. Except, perhaps,
that of the human mind and human nature. Which is why, I think, those of us who
never wanted to stop believing in monsters and magic have sort of transferred
our interests to true crime. A world where the monsters really and truly are real…
Ryan
Gosling and Kirsten Dunst star in the tale of David Marks and his wife Katie.
They tell the story of a murder (well, at least one murder, shall we say) and a
disappearance. To this day, the film informs us, the case remains open, but
there are strong suspicions as to what happened… This is the story of those
suspicions…
When they
first got married, David and Katie Marks really looked like archetypal
star-crossed lovers. He was a senator’s son looking for his place in life, she
was a small town girl. They met by sheer coincidence, love blossomed young and
strong. Her family was surprised by
their new son in law that hailed from almost a different dimension from them –
but not unfriendly. David’s father however, was very quick to point out that
“Katie would never be one of them”. This
tension is, as you can imagine, the ignition point for a crisis. A crisis that
had been, it might be argued, brewing in the soul of David Marks for a long
while… The marriage starts off happily enough, but very soon the veneer begins
to crack. The fact that David returns to the family business - a business that is decidedly on the shadier
side of the law – is definitely part of the problem. But it has to be admitted
that (thankfully) not all of us react to stress at work the way David did…
Under stress, David begins to show his “true colours”… The colours are
surprisingly dark…
This film
does a very spookily successful job of telling the story of what seems to be a
true psychopath – or a man with serious psychopathic tendencies at any rate. I
was especially struck by the way the progression of the situation is shown. At
the beginning of the film David seems determined
to run away from “it all” – although, it needs to be said, we do not quite
understand what “it all” is until much later. One can even imagine – although this
is as much my speculation as anything else – David trying to live a simple life open a store away from
the city, marry a small town girl and be a simple man. But who knows, even
without the obvious trigger of his “work life” with his family , his deadly
tendencies may have crept to the surface…
And I can’t
help but feel deeply for poor Kate. Imagine starting off on what seems to be a
fairy tale life only to find out that your “other half” is a psychopath… Mind
you, violence within marriages that get “kept” from the outside world are by no
means few or far between of course. But that is possibly a topic deserving of
its own post, not something to be tagged onto the end of a film review.
All good
things is a “build the tension slowly and creepily” type of work of film. Not
too gory so ideal for the weak of
stomach. Definitely not for the weak of heart though…
Great review. I've just watched this film and was hooked by the intensity of it!
YanıtlaSilGoing to watch the series next!
www.numbertwentysix.co.uk
KT xo.
Thanks Kirsty! Definitely check out the series too - I marathoned it in a single night!!
Sil