'All Good Things': Kirsten Dunst shows new maturity

'All Good Things': Kirsten Dunst shows new maturity
G. Allen Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle December 15, 2010 04:00 AM

Kirsten Dunst is calling breathlessly (no kidding) from her New York residence.

"We just walked up seven flights of stairs, we're winded!" she says. "My elevator's broken."

Dunst is madly rushing through press interviews for "All Good Things," in which she stars with Ryan Gosling in a fictionalized look at the notorious Robert Durst case and marks the feature film debut of documentarian Andrew Jarecki ("Capturing the Friedmans").

She says she's immensely proud of the movie, and knowing it's a crowded marketplace during the holiday season, she wants to get the word out before she is needed in San Francisco to finish her part in Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."

Dunst, 28, is a revelation in "All Good Things" as Katie Marks, based on Durst's wife, Kathie, who disappeared in 1982. Robert Durst (played by Gosling as David Marks), a wealthy real estate heir, is thought by many to have killed her; a friend who might have been involved turned up dead in Los Angeles in 2000 (never solved) and Durst escaped serious jail time when a jury found he had killed a man in Texas in 2003 in self-defense. The bulk of Jarecki's film examines the Durst marriage.

"Because Andrew comes from the documentary side of things, he did very thorough research and made it like a mini-documentary for us," said Dunst, who described the cast and director's intense eight-week research and rehearsal before shooting commenced. "I was able to meet Kathie's family, her brother, his wife, who are portrayed in the film. Andrew worked with me on every scene, my side of things, because he really didn't want to make her a victim, but a complex woman."

"All Good Things" appears to herald a new phase in Dunst's career. No longer playing high school cheerleaders ("Bring It On") or Spider-Man's girlfriend, she shot the movie in 2008 after a stint in a rehab facility for depression. Since then, she has made "Melancholia" for Danish bad boy Lars von Trier, the special effects-driven love story "Upside Down" and "On the Road."

Asked if her bout with depression had made her rethink her career and the choices she made, she said, "I think anything like that in someone's life changes them as a person. So, yeah." But she added, "I wouldn't say it's a new phase - it's just growing up. When you get older, the female roles get more complex, because you have adult issues to deal with."

Whatever the reason, Dunst is showing a new maturity in her acting that's a pleasure to watch. Eventually, she would like to direct films as well. She made a short film, "Bastard," which has played at several film festivals this year. Asked who she admired as a director, she quickly tossed out 1970s master Hal Ashby, then Quentin Tarantino. Two very different sensibilities, indeed.

"I like movies that take you into a whole atmosphere and that are aesthetically very pleasing," Dunst said. "The movies that I drew on for my short were 'Paris, Texas,' and I liked 'Gerry,' the Gus Van Sant film."

She paused, then said, "I do have more opportunities now."

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