Gosford Park Reviews

(Mu) Altaman in "Downtown Abbey" mood and discovery. In fact, there´s Fellowes in the script. It seems illustrative, but is the kind of Altman character and rituals observation he likes to amuse with...

In retrospect, Gosford Park is a bit of a dry-run for Downton Abbey, except there was no drop off in quality in its second season. Or maybe Julian Fellows only has one story that he can write about? No matter, Gosford Park is wildly entertaining and a great showcase for numerous respected actors from the U.K. And with Robert Altman at the helm, we know that we’re in for a bit of a treat.

Falling somewhere between a stately Agatha Christie-esque whodunit and a very British comedy of manners, Gosford Park presents to us a giant manor house and all of the guests, servants and owners who are going to be there for an extended weekend. When the man of the house winds up dead we transition into a mystery, and there’s only about, oh I don’t know, twenty or so suspects that seem to have logical reasons for wanting to kill him.

This allows Altman to do what his entire career was built upon, create a panorama of a time and place by observing roughly twenty-five characters at a time. Think of what he accomplished with Nashville, but transfer that to the English countryside in the 1930s. Now you’re roughly in the ballpark. But the murder at the heart of the story isn’t really a chance for Altman to indulge into playing with the tropes of murder-mysteries, but rather a chance for him to examine the characters reactions to it. To take a step back and observe the symbiotic relationship between master and servant, and watch as characters reach epiphanies in their lives and choices.

These scenes of epiphany are towered over by Helen Mirren’s closing sequence in which she cries over the son she gave up for adoption. Throughout the rest of the film she has been a reserved, efficient housekeeper. A woman who does her job and does it well, but who remains a mystery to those she works with on a daily basis. To see her humanity finally crack through is a stunning achievement and Mirren plays it beautifully. Maggie Smith, is this the beginning of her tart-tongued grand dame mode?, is also a hoot as an acid tongued wealthy matron. Prone to gossip and priding on decorum and being pragmatic, while also being hilarious with a quip, it isn’t hard to see the character she plays here eventually leading to her role on Downton, as they are remarkably similar.

As for the rest of the sprawling cast, they all perform at a very consistent and high rate. Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard E. Grant, Emily Watson, Clive Owen, Kelly Macdonald, Bob Balaban, Derek Jacobi, Eileen Atkins and Ryan Phillippe are probably the most memorable faces in the ensemble, and they’re each doing fantastic work. Phillippe is a bit of a surprise to me, since I have often thought of him as mostly just a pretty boy actor, but he holds him own and does well enough with an accent and character that must switch about halfway through. This group barely scratches the surface of who is in the film, but they do tend to get the most screen time.

It’s not hard to see why Gosford Park enchanted critics and the Academy at the time. It is a solidly constructed piece of film-making. I don’t find it to be at quite the level of artistry that Nashville is, but is definitely a solid entry. The barbarism and war of words of the upper class in British society is well-known territory, but leave it to Altman to at least offer a few new details here and there.

Too many names, TOO MANY NAMES and too many characters!
The premise is rather interesting. Wealthy English man William McCordle invites (loads of) his friends to his house for shooting party. It's a period movie so we have huge army of servants and well guests to serve. All of them have ties with William so then a murder happens in house and well you have to find the murderer.

I like such movies you know, it's a great time to watch butlers, awesome food, amazing relatives bickering, their back stories and hidden motives and yes great costumes. I enjoy watching them.

But Gosford falls short on so many levels. Following are the 2 things that irritated me the most.

-HUGE CAST- names, names and names. Sometimes first name, sometime second, it is so messy that even when I was in 1 and half hr in, I couldn't tell the characters name right. Please know that it is painful to stop movie and check cast page and try to figure out ok whose gossiping am I listening to now? at one point, I was like, damn it! I am done with names now!

- cliched characters back story- You think that since these all are britishers, they'd be at least tiny bit interesting but nope! except for hollywoord producer idea and an actor, everything was cliched. I got bored of them. Even servants are not that interesting. I might seem whiny but I have watched two best gathering movies and those were waaaay interesting than this. One is "Festen (the celebration)" and the second one is murder by death. Very different but they are interesting as hell, this one... I was checking how much time was left after every 10-15 mins.

I really hoped for it to work and I tried my best to be in the movie but it didn't work for me. There is a twist in the end and I appreciate the director for not screaming it in the end but I wish it were better especially with this a grand budget and that big of a cast. Production and principle photography must have been a hell.

Before I end, Maggie Smith was amazing in her character. Acting wise movie is really good but I complained enough.

5/10