You’ve probably seen the memes or the clips of Ryan Gosling looking hauntingly vacant in a tuxedo, but the story behind the movie about David Marks is way weirder than a Hollywood script.
The film is called All Good Things. It came out back in 2010. Honestly, at the time, people didn't quite know what to make of it. It’s a moody, slow-burn thriller that feels like a fever dream of 1970s New York. But here’s the kicker: David Marks isn't a real person. Not exactly. He’s a thinly veiled stand-in for Robert Durst, the real-life real estate heir who became one of the most notorious suspected serial killers in American history.
If you’re watching the movie today, it feels like a prophetic piece of media. It was directed by Andrew Jarecki, the same guy who later gave us the HBO docuseries The Jinx.
Why the Name Change?
Usually, when a movie changes the names of everyone involved, it’s for one of two reasons: creative freedom or avoiding a massive lawsuit. With Robert Durst, it was likely both. By calling him David Marks, the writers could speculate on what happened behind closed doors without getting sued for libel by a man with an unlimited legal budget.
In the film, Ryan Gosling plays David as a man drowning in his own skin. He’s the son of Sanford Marks (played by Frank Langella), a cold, domineering real estate mogul who basically owns half of Times Square back when it was all porn shops and grime. David doesn’t want the empire. He wants to open a health food store in Vermont.
He meets Katie McCarthy (Kirsten Dunst), a working-class girl who sees something in him that maybe isn't there. They move away, they open the shop—actually called "All Good Things"—and for a second, it looks like a romance. Then the money pulls him back. The father pulls him back. And David starts to unravel.
The Real Story vs. The Film
People often ask how much of the movie about David Marks is actually true.
It’s surprisingly accurate to the timeline of Robert Durst’s life, even if the names are swapped. The disappearance of Katie in the movie mirrors the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack. In real life, Kathleen vanished after a weekend at their cottage in South Salem, New York. She has never been found.
The movie shows David becoming increasingly violent, even forcing Katie to have an abortion she didn't want. This wasn't just "movie drama." Friends of the real Kathleen McCormack have testified about similar patterns of abuse and control.
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One of the most chilling parts of the film involves David’s later years, where he moves to Galveston, Texas, and starts living as a woman to hide from the New York authorities. He wears a wig, a dress, and goes by a different name. You’d think that’s Hollywood exaggerating for effect. Nope. Robert Durst actually did that. He lived as "Dorothy Ciner" for months.
That Bizarre DVD Commentary
Here is a fact that sounds fake but is 100% real: Robert Durst liked the movie.
Most people accused of murder would run for the hills if a movie was made about them. Not Durst. He called Andrew Jarecki and told him he liked Gosling’s performance. He even sat down to record a DVD commentary for the film.
Think about that. A man suspected of three murders sat in a room and watched a fictionalized version of himself kill people on screen, then talked about it into a microphone.
This weird fascination with the film is actually what led to The Jinx. Because Durst liked how Jarecki handled the story of David Marks, he agreed to be interviewed for the documentary. That interview famously ended with Durst’s hot-mic confession: "Killed them all, of course."
The Supporting Players
While Gosling is the anchor, the movie works because of the people around him.
- Kirsten Dunst (Katie): She plays the "victim" role with so much agency that it makes the eventual disappearance feel like a genuine tragedy rather than a plot point.
- Frank Langella (Sanford Marks): He represents the "old money" rot. He’s the reason David is the way he is.
- Philip Baker Hall: He plays a character based on Morris Black, the neighbor Durst eventually admitted to dismembering (though he claimed self-defense).
The movie doesn't give you a neat ending. It can't. When it was filmed, the real case was still "unsolved" in the eyes of the law. It captures a specific type of New York gloom—the transition from the gritty 70s to the corporate 80s, where people like the Marks family were building glass towers over their secrets.
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What Most People Get Wrong
A common misconception is that All Good Things is a documentary. It’s definitely a "narrative feature." It takes leaps. It imagines conversations that no one was alive to hear.
Some critics at the time hated the ambiguity. They wanted to know exactly what David did with the body. But Jarecki’s point was more about the why. Why does a man with everything decide to destroy everyone who loves him?
The film suggests it’s a mix of inherited trauma—David witnessing his mother’s suicide as a child—and the crushing weight of a family legacy he was never equipped to handle.
Actionable Insights for Viewers
If you’re planning to watch the movie about David Marks, do yourself a favor and watch it in a specific order to get the full, disturbing effect of the story:
- Watch "All Good Things" first. Treat it as a standalone psychological thriller. Don't Google the real story yet. Let the atmosphere sink in.
- Watch "The Jinx" (Season 1). This is where the fiction meets the reality. You’ll see Robert Durst’s real mannerisms—the blinking, the burping, the way he speaks—and realize just how much Ryan Gosling was holding back to make the character even slightly relatable.
- Read "A Deadly Secret" by Matt Birkbeck. If you want the granular details of the real estate empire and the police investigation that the movie skims over, this is the definitive text.
The movie is currently available on several streaming platforms like Plex and can be rented on Amazon. It remains a polarizing piece of cinema, but as a character study of a man losing his mind while protected by his father's millions, it's pretty much unmatched.
Next time you see Ryan Gosling in a "literally me" edit, remember that in this one, he was playing a guy who (spoiler alert for real life) eventually got caught because he forgot to turn off his microphone in a bathroom.