BEFORE: I'm taking two weeks off for vacation, and I started it by going to a beer festival yesterday afternoon, but it was one for a good cause - so I was happy to do my part for charity. But then I came home and slept for a few hours, so my sleeping schedule is even weirder than usual. Maybe I can turn this to my advantage, since we're leaving Monday morning for a real trip, so I can pack all day today while clearing out my DVRs (so they won't fill up while I'm gone) and then stay up late watching one more film, and leave early Monday for the airport.
Linking from "Guilty As Sin", Rebecca De Mornay was also in "And God Created Woman" with Frank Langella (last seen in "Unknown"), who appears in today's film. There's a connection I never thought I'd need to make.
THE PLOT: Mr. David Marks was suspected but never tried for killing his wife Katie who disappeared in 1982, but the truth is eventually revealed.
AFTER: A good number of films this week have been based on real murder cases - which I didn't realize at first, but it's a solid enough connection to make. "Compulsion" was based on the Leopold & Loeb case, "In Cold Blood" obviously written by Capote about a real Kansas killing, and "Double Indemnity" was based on a real insurance scam/murder scheme in 1927 in Queens, NY.
This film also is based on real events, though the names have been changed - Robert Durst was the son of a NYC real estate mogul, and his wife disappeared in 1982. Her case was still unsolved when Durst's best friend, who may have had knowledge about his wife's disappearance was found murdered, and Durst was questioned. He moved to Texas and began dressing as a woman, and he was arrested when his neighbor turned up dead - Durst was acquitted, claiming self-defense.
The film attempts to make some sense out of the few facts known, and changing the names allows them to speculate about the central character's sanity and motivations. Was he just a control freak, or mentally unstable? Was his desire not to have children a factor in his wife's fate, or did he just see her distancing herself from him? How much was his mother's death a factor in his personality?
Lots of "why", very little "how" - that's OK, I'm down with that. A mystery is a mystery. And I credit the filmmakers for using Marks' testimony on the stand as a single efficient framing device, and not jumping back and forth in time with the flashbacks. There's been entirely too much of that.
The title is a reference to the name of the health food store that the central couple owned, but could also be taken as an ironic commentary on their marriage - as in, all "good" things must come to an end. There's a lot that's intentionally ambiguous here, but perhaps with good reason. Even the first half of this film could have been any regular relationship drama, albeit one about people with issues, until you start to realize that those issues could be masking something more sinister.
Also starring Ryan Gosling (last seen in "The Ides of March"), Kirsten Dunst (last seen in "Little Women"), Lily Rabe, Philip Baker Hall (last seen in "50/50"), John Cullum, Nick Offerman (last seen in "21 Jump Street") and Kristen Wiig (last seen in "Bridesmaids").
RATING: 5 out of 10 blonde wigs
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