Movies are usually just movies. But sometimes, a two-minute clip hits the internet and changes how people look at a real-life cold case forever. That’s exactly what happened when the All Good Things movie trailer first dropped, offering a thin veil of fiction over the disturbing disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst. It wasn't just a promo. It was a catalyst.
It’s weird to think back on it now. Most trailers are designed to sell popcorn and opening weekend tickets. This one, though, felt like a public accusation. It featured Ryan Gosling looking eerily detached and Kirsten Dunst looking increasingly terrified, all set against a backdrop of 1970s New York opulence that felt rotting from the inside out. If you watch it today, knowing what happened to Robert Durst in the years following the film's release, the footage feels less like a thriller and more like a premonition.
The Trailer That Reopened a Wound
When the All Good Things movie trailer hit screens in late 2010, the "David Marks" character wasn't foolin' anybody. Everyone knew it was Robert Durst. The real Durst was the scion of a massive real estate empire, a man who had been under a cloud of suspicion since his wife, Kathie, vanished in 1982. For decades, the case was cold. Stone cold. Then comes this movie directed by Andrew Jarecki—the guy who did Capturing the Friedmans—and suddenly the narrative is back in the zeitgeist.
The trailer does this clever thing. It starts with a romantic, soft-focus montage of a young couple in love, buying a health food store in Vermont. It’s idyllic. Then, the music shifts. The tone curdles. We see flashes of domestic violence, a dog being treated roughly, and Gosling’s character staring blankly into space. It captured the specific "creep factor" of the Durst story that news reports never quite could. It wasn't just about a murder; it was about the psychological disintegration of a marriage fueled by immense wealth and even greater secrets.
Why the Marketing Strategy Was So Risky
Most legal departments at film studios would lose their minds over a project like this. You’re essentially making a movie about a man who hasn't been convicted of the central crime yet. The All Good Things movie trailer had to walk a razor-thin line between "inspired by true events" and outright libel.
Interestingly, Robert Durst didn't sue. He did the opposite. He liked Gosling’s performance.
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Honestly, that’s the part that still blows my mind. After seeing the film and its promotional materials, Durst actually contacted Jarecki. He wanted to sit down for an interview. That decision—born from the visibility the movie trailer created—directly led to the groundbreaking HBO docuseries The Jinx. Without that initial trailer sparking Durst’s ego, he might never have sat in front of a camera and accidentally confessed to "killing them all" while wearing a live microphone in a bathroom.
Breaking Down the Visual Cues
If you look closely at the editing of the All Good Things movie trailer, it uses specific visual shorthand to hint at the real-life evidence.
- There’s the shot of the lake. This refers to the theory that Durst disposed of remains in or near water.
- The emphasis on the "disguises." We see Gosling in a wig, a nod to Durst’s later life as a fugitive in Galveston, Texas, where he lived as a mute woman.
- The phone calls. The trailer highlights the mysterious phone call allegedly made by "Kathie" to her medical school, which investigators believe was actually a woman hired by Durst to create an alibi.
It’s a masterclass in "show, don't tell." Instead of a narrator explaining the timeline, the trailer uses jarring cuts. One second, they’re dancing; the next, he’s dragging her out of a party by her hair. It’s brutal. It’s effective. It made the public care about Kathie Durst again after thirty years of silence.
The Kirsten Dunst Performance
We have to talk about Dunst. In the All Good Things movie trailer, she isn't just a victim. She’s a person with agency who is slowly being suffocated. Her performance in those clips is what grounded the movie. While Gosling was doing "quietly terrifying," Dunst was the emotional heartbeat. She represented the real Kathie—a woman who was just about to finish her medical degree and start a life before it was stolen.
Critics often point out that the trailer leans heavily into the "disappearance" aspect, but the movie itself goes much further. It explores the death of Susan Berman (played by Lily Rabe, though called "Deborah Lehrman" in the film) and the dismemberment of Morris Black. These are gruesome, heavy topics that the trailer handles with a chilling subtlety. It uses the sound of a ticking clock and heavy breathing to build tension rather than jump scares.
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Impact on the Legal Case
Can a movie trailer actually help put someone in jail? In this case, arguably, yes.
The publicity surrounding the film and the All Good Things movie trailer put pressure on the Los Angeles District Attorney's office and the New York investigators to take another look at the files. It wasn't just a "movie of the week." It was a cultural moment that refused to let the story die. When the film came out, it didn't do massive numbers at the box office, but its ripples were huge. It reached the one person it needed to: Robert Durst himself.
He saw the trailer. He saw the film. He reached out to the director.
That sequence of events is unparalleled in cinema history. We usually think of movies as being the "end" of a story—the dramatization of something that’s already over. Here, the movie was the middle. It was a piece of investigative journalism disguised as a Hollywood thriller.
Technical Details You Might Have Missed
The trailer uses a very specific color palette. It starts warm—golds, yellows, soft browns. This is the Vermont era. As the story moves to New York and the relationship sours, the colors drain out. Everything becomes steel blue, gray, and harsh white. This visual transition tells the whole story of the Durst marriage without saying a single word.
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Also, the soundtrack choice. It’s haunting. It doesn't rely on a pop song or a generic "epic" orchestral score. It uses a discordant, atmospheric soundscape that makes you feel uneasy. It's the sound of a secret being kept.
Practical Takeaways for True Crime Enthusiasts
If you’re interested in the intersection of film and real-life justice, the All Good Things movie trailer is a case study you can't ignore. It shows how media can be used to poke a hornet’s nest.
To get the most out of this story, you should:
- Watch the trailer first to see how the "Hollywood version" was sold.
- Watch the film All Good Things to see the specific theories Jarecki had about the murder (specifically the "staircase" theory).
- Immediately follow it up with The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
- Compare Gosling’s mannerisms in the trailer to the actual footage of Durst’s 2015 arrest and subsequent trial.
The level of detail Gosling put into the role, from the blinking of the eyes to the subtle jaw tension, is all there in the trailer. It’s a chillingly accurate portrayal of a man who thought he was untouchable because of his bank account.
Ultimately, the trailer served as a mirror. It held up a version of the truth to a man who had been running from it for decades. And for some reason, he couldn't look away. He wanted to correct the record. He wanted to tell his side. In doing so, he walked right into a trap that started with a simple movie promotion.
To truly understand the legacy of this film, look up the transcripts of Robert Durst's reaction to the movie. He famously said that while some parts were inaccurate, the "feeling" of the relationship was true. That "feeling" is exactly what the trailer captured so perfectly back in 2010. It didn't just sell a movie; it began the final chapter of a forty-year search for justice.