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All Good Things

Josh Spiegel: Ryan Gosling is an intriguing enough actor, and Andrew Jarecki has done superlative documentary work, so All Good Things could be a compelling drama. The people who made the trailer, though, are trying too hard to make it seem very generic, what with the heard-them-before taglines and overly melodramatic intensity of the final half of the trailer. Gosling continues to be an actor worth watching, so I'm interested, but the trailer did all it could to turn me off.

Brett Beach: This trailer confused me, and not in a good way. What starts off as a poor little rich boy romance seems to morph into a thriller-ish tale of the sort that might pop up on Dateline or 20/20 as a two hour "dramatic re-enactment of shocking true events." Attempts to raise questions as to what is going on instead imply the marketing team wasn't sure how to push this. I watched the trailer for Blue Valentine immediately before and there was no comparison in my mind: that is the Ryan Gosling romance I want to check out.

Kim Hollis: Yeah, that trailer is all over the place. It's a romance. It's a drama. It's a thriller. I am all about Ryan Gosling and Frank Langella, but this trailer does nothing to make me want to watch the film other than show me they're in it. The movie has a distinct "movie of the week" vibe to it.

Max Braden: After Wall St. 2 - and maybe it's Langella's casting here - this looks like the kind of role Shia LaBeouf might have taken. Usually we don't like when trailers spoil plots, but this trailer wants the audience to show up with little else than "There's drama! and mystery!" Oh and possibly some skin. But that's not going to be compelling enough to get me in the theater. And I don't doubt Kristen Wiig's acting ability, but her presence in a super serious movie is a little alien.

David Mumpower: I am going to disagree with you all about the focus of the trailer. I am of the opinion that it does exactly what it should, which is to show the two phases of this couple’s relationship. Kirsten Dunst is the outsider who marries the man of her dreams, as is pointed out by a line of dialogue in the trailer. Almost exactly half of this 2:40 clip is the build-up of the perfect romance. After the marriage – and this may be a not so subtle metaphor about the institution itself – that changes as she comes to understand that her husband is not who she thinks he is due to familial ties. Now, if the conversation is that this is boring or paint by numbers, I’m totally with all of you. This is a rote, almost soulless commercial, something I find shocking given the presences of Dunst, Ryan Gosling and one of the finest living actors, Frank Langella. I’m hoping that the movie itself proves to be much better fare as I recorded it off of HDNet over the weekend. Based on this clip, however, I’m glad I didn’t pay to see the film.

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