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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.
