Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

When the boy of a very wealthy businessman, who wasn't interested in his father's job, meets and falls for a lovely woman, they buy a house and start to live their lives as ordinary people, but his father's influence will change their lives much sooner than anyone would expect. Haunted by his past, his life, especially along his beloved, will prove to be a difficult one, often making him to make radical decisions. We follow the relation of the two, along with its troubles until her mysterious disappearance and the trial that follows many years later.It's a movie inspired by real life events which seems to be like a biography of David Marks, presenting in detail his disturbed life and the events which result from his decisions. It's plot, although quite predictable and somewhat linear, even for somebody who doesn't have any idea about the real events on which it's based, can be "seen" from two distinct points of view. You either take it as a biography, which has to present the events as close as it can to the reality, fact which I believe it does really good, or as a normal movie which presents a strange but predictable course of events which ultimately aren't able to captivate the viewer.It does have good actors and some interesting characters, even an unique way of telling its story, alternating events and inserting pieces of David's trial, but it doesn't manage to keep the viewer's interest. You don't get to care about the characters, you're simply a spectator to a couple of events, which you kind of guess before they happen, thus the result is not satisfying at all. The characters also have tendency to make radical decisions which decisively affect the outcome of the story, but not in a good way. Towards the end, it even becomes awkward, making you wonder why you're still watching. It simply isn't a good watch, to put it simple.Overall, I have to say that I was disappointed with this movie, due to its very slow pace, lack of generated interest, but ultimately its predictability. It simply isn't ok to watch a movie where you know the answer to all the key moments, especially when you're not affected one bit by the fate of the characters. It just isn't able to attract the viewer and make him enjoy the time he watches.

Ryan Gosling is one of my favorite actors, no matter if he is in a romance, drama, or comedy. This particular movie starts out as a love story as the couple gets married, move in together, and start their own business. Their fairy-tale beginning twists into an abusive relationship. Kirsten Dunst's character finds out that her husband has anger issues and he takes his anger out on her. The director includes a variety of shots to capture the suspense throughout the movie. He uses a lot of close-ups to show detail and facial expressions. The director also includes non-diegetic sound to intensify certain scary scenes. The movie also starts with Ryan Gosling in court, being questioned about the murder of the characters later in the movie.The director chose to show what happened in addition to how the character told his side of the story, depicting his lies. In the movie, the shots go back-and-forth between the past and what is portrayed as the present. The shots and music exaggerate the thrill of the movie as it is almost as if the story is uncovering a mystery. I love mystery type movies because of the building suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat, curious as to what will happen next, and that is what this movie achieves.

The main actors give great performances but it's unbelievable that their characters are related to each other.The father is not likely to be Gosling's character's father. It just doesn't match.The romance between Dunst and Gosling is not intimate, not sensitive enough. If you have seen some prior work of Gosling, as in Blue Valentine, you know what I mean. And you know what I mean anyway if you ever had a real love story yourself.The sex scene is the worst I have ever seen! I mean, Gosling puts his hand under her dress, but so low that of course he touches nothing, she opens his pants as he waits there, they kiss and we clearly see her mouth with her tongue moving in the space, then they are on the bed : there are no emotions, there is nothing real about it, you almost hear the director give the instructions! Then when they are under the shower, they keep a distance between their bodies. I swear to God, I heard Dunst whisper : look, I'm an actress, this doesn't have to be real, so don't touch me, OK? Plus, even if I love Gosling very much, even if I love to see him naked, I found him to not be the right actor for the shirtless scenes. I mean, come on, he is musclebound, which doesn't make it plausible for him to be a weak, freaky man, jealous of his wife.So I found the casting to be very very bad. Casting being the art of putting together the actors in a way that will make the whole work.Now, every performance respectively was astounding.About the scenario, there are also some weaknesses : it is hard to understand why a woman would endure for so long such a hard relationship. There are not much clues. It is bizarre why she comes back at the end to that freak. And when she finds the blood of the dog, what she does? She goes show him! And that's the same woman that went through the window to save herself from him when he hit her???? Come on! The movie tends to make us see that woman only as a victim, almost a moron! And that doesn't seem fair to me. If she wanted, she could have gone back to where she came from and begin her life again, couldn't she? So I assume she got used to money. Or was she that in love? Well, it is a mystery anyway, love...Also, I've read in some review that Gosling's character tries to look normal until he can't hide his craziness anymore. I haven't seen that. He just switches from sane to insane. I thought he was normal in the beginning! A bit weird, but just like I am ;), not a psycho! Now the story itself is very interesting, very touching, and very creepy. If it can help only one woman to run away from a psycho, even if she has no penny, then it would have been useful.It is absolutely non-understandable though that the real person has not been pursued for the murder of his wife, especially since he has been able to kill someone later on, and to cut that someone into pieces! I mean, come on! And the funny thing is that he had only 9 months of jail for improper disposal of a body! What? Seriously? How does anyone want people to stop killing people if the justice is so light? Anyway, if you're a fan of Ryan Gosling, I recommend that movie! If you're a fan of Ryan Gosling, I recommend any movie he's in! :)

Based on a true story, Ryan Gosling plays David Marks, the son a a rich New York property owner. He appears to have some kind of personality disorder. He takes up with wife Kirsten Dunst and moves to the country to open a shop but is persuaded by his father to return to New York to help look after the family business. For the most part David Marks is nothing more than a bit aloof but then he turns quite quickly into an abusive husband once his wife tries to leave him. His wife disappears, he leaves town, starts cross dressing and becomes friendly with an old lonely neighbour. The film implicates him in the wife's disappearance and also in the murder of one of his old friends, who is killed by the neighbour in the film, at the instruction of David Marks. Considering the film explicitly implicates him in the murders, it is surprising to discover that the real David Marks (Robert Durst) is alive and well and not only not at all concerned about being implicated in this way by the film but also agrees to do the commentary with the director for the extras on the DVD. A sure sign of a psychopath if ever I've seen one! Would be very interesting to hear the commentary.The film is OK and is similar to, but less interesting than, Zodiac, another unsolved murder mystery film based on true events.