Gosford Park
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Movie Reviews of Gosford Park
Movie Review: Extremely Well Crafted and Delivered
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Robert Altman assembled an all-star ensemble cast for this story of mores and morals, relationships and class distinction. It's an insightful foray into the human condition, filled with pettiness, indiscretion, passion and lust, dignity (as well as lack thereof), an aloof disregard for our fellow man, and finally, even love; all of the things that make life-- well, if not worth living-- just "life," by definition. It's all found in "Gosford Park," during one particularly eventful weekend, from which Altman manages to paint a vivid and realistic portrait that is a telling study of what it is that makes the world go `round. It's 1932 England, and a select group of those from the upper crust of society have gathered at the country estate of Sir William and Lady Sylvia McCordle (Michael Gambon and Kristin Scott Thomas) for a weekend shooting party. But it's a weekend that will find the guests engaging in a variety of "sports," the least of which has to do with the shooting of birds, and will ultimately involve the untimely demise of one of those present. Yes, murder is afoot among the privileged and those who serve them, and there are suspects and motives aplenty. And though it's a dreadful affair, it causes seemingly little consternation among the friends and family of the deceased, and at the same time affords at least one guest, Mr. Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban), with a unique opportunity. Weissman is a Hollywood movie producer, in attendance at this extended soiree for the purpose of researching his next project, "Charlie Chan in London," a murder mystery that takes place at a country estate. So it appears that this may become a case of art imitating life. First, however, the dust will have to settle and it will all have to be sorted out; and we find that before it's over, that can be a murky business, indeed. But such is life among the aristocracy, among whom even murder can be taken in stride-- and life goes on.
Altman's film makes a subtle, yet powerful statement about what compels the human animal and serves as the impetus of his actions. Written by Julian Fellowes (from an idea by Altman and Bob Balaban), the film sagely explores the cross purposes inherent in the convergence of individual agendas and needs, and the conflicts they must, therefore, naturally inspire. Altman's characters are extremely well developed, and presented in such a way that the audience is able to keep track of who is who and where the many and myriad pieces of the puzzle fit together, though they are numerous and involve a number of storylines and subplots. As he is wont to do, Altman keeps you emotionally somewhat at arm's length, yet still involved, setting a deliberate pace that will make you oblivious of the time it takes him to tell his story (137 minutes). The contrasts he draws between the classes, and even the diverse personalities of those within them, are incisive; and in that distinction we learn so very much about who we really are and what makes us tick. The oppressively dry and reserved British bearing and atmosphere that permeates every frame of the film suits Altman's stoic style exceptionally well, and he displays such an eye for detail, from everything that happens visually, to the little snippets of peripheral dialogue and the rendering of all the human flaws and imperfections that make it so real, that this just may be his most perfect film yet.
As can be expected from such an inspired cast, the performances that drive this film are second to none; but the fact that he was able to sustain such consistent quality and excellence from his actors-- considering the size of his cast alone-- is quite a feat, for which Altman deserves another nod of acknowledgement. There are a number of outstanding performances here that deserve to be singled out, but the most memorable are turned in by Helen Mirren, who is extremely affecting as Mrs. Wilson, the housekeeper with a dark secret; Kelly Macdonald, as Mary, the new maid struggling to learn the ropes of service and the ways of the very rich; Emily Watson, as Elsie, the Head Housemaid whose entanglements lead her into murky waters; Sophie Thompson, as Dorothy, the Still Room Maid (Thompson is arguably one of the best character actors around, as she demonstrates here); and Maggie Smith, as Constance, the Countess of Trentham, turning in a performance that is the definitive portrayal of privilege. Also noteworthy are Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas (who is absolutely elegant) and Ryan Phillippe, as Mr. Weissman's man, Henry Denton.
Rounding out this superb cast are Alan Bates (Jennings), Jeremy Northam (Novello), Camilla Rutherford (Isobel), Charles Dance (Lord Stockbridge), Geraldine Somerville (Lady Stockbridge), Eileen Atkins (Mrs. Croft), Derek Jacobi (Probert), Richard E. Grant (George), Clive Owen (Robert Parks) and Stephen Fry (Inspector Thompson). A transporting film that captures a time and place that now belongs to the ages, "Gosford Park" establishes the realization that environments and those who populate them are ever changing-- and yet they stay inexplicably the same; it's the nature of who we are and how we thrive, for better or worse. And it's that essence that Robert Altman captures so succinctly here. This is riveting, entertaining drama that teaches us something, if only we are willing to listen; and even the best of us would be well served to do just that. By seeing the way things are, perhaps it will give us pause to reflect upon the way things "should" be. Perhaps it is possible to create a world in which the "Upstairs, Downstairs" mentality is no longer viable; a world in which all men are viewed as equal. It may be concealed within the context, but it's a question Altman nevertheless effectively asks with this film. That's the power of the cinema-- and it's the magic of the movies.
Movie Review: Intelligent and highly pleasurable period satire
Summary: 5 Stars
Gosford Park is a big English country house in the early 1930s. It is inhabited by William McCordle (Michael Gambon), his wife Sylvia (Kristen Scott-Thomas) and their daughter Isobel (Camilla Rutherford). William and Sylvia's not very happy marriage is a fairly flagrant exchange of financial prosperity for social standing as prior to it she was immensely posh but broke, while he was not posh at all but extremely rich thanks to the factories he owns. They are hosting a weekend social gathering to do a spot of shooting and have invited mainly her relatives, his being presumably too common. The exception is his cousin Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam) who belongs to the new Hollywood aristocracy (not that that cuts much social ice hereabouts - the servants are overawed, their masters sniffy) and his film director friend from Hollywood Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) who has got himself invited along with a view to researching a planned movie about toffs together with the later's valet Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe). Also along are Sylvia's sister Louisa Stocksbridge (Geraldine Somerville) accompanied by her arrogantly patrician war hero husband Raymond (Charles Dance) and his valet Robert Parks (Clive Owen); her other sister Lavinia (Natasha Wightman) rather less successfully married off to the weak and financially straightened Anthony (Tom Hollander) who is as desperate to get William to invest in his schemes for a boot factory in the Sudan as William is determined to do no such thing; her nephew Freddie Nesbit who is also in dire straits for money and divides his time between sucking up to William in the hope of being offered employment and bullying his wife Mabel (Caudie Blakely), who has also been married for her money, but having had less that was hoped, is now treated with merciless scorn and contempt; Sylvia's stingy and supercilious aunt Constance Trentham (Maggie Smith) and her maid Mary MacCeachran (Kelly MacDonald). That's about it upstairs about from a couple of additional young fellows Lord Rupert Standish (Laurence Fox) and Jeremy Blond (Trent Ford) who show up late and never really integrate successfully into either the social gathering or the film except that the former seems to have his eye on Isobel or at least what she stands to inherit inheritance.
You might perhaps think that was already complicated enough. But in the meantime Parks and Maceachran arrive downstairs to find themselves in the midst of a huge army of servants presided over by housekeeper Mrs Wilson (Helen Mirren) and alcoholic butler Jennings (Alan Bates) prominent among whom are head cook Mrs Croft (Eileen Atkins); head housemaid (and William's mistress), Elsie (Emily Watson), William's valet Probert (Derek Jacobi), the lecherous footman George (Richard E. Grant) and the nymphomaniac kitchen maid Dorothy (Sophie Thompson). All this huge array of people mingle, gossip, intrigue their way though an evening and the following day until, the second evening, Sir William turns up murdered in his study, bringing the law onto the scene in the form of the drolly moronic Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) and his rather less dimwitted underling Constable Dexter (Ron Webster).
Smith, Mirren, Gambon, Scott-Thomas, Jacobi, Bates, Dance, Watson, Grant, Atkins, Fry... Some cast. The British film A-list is very bit as talented as their American counterparts but, sadly for them, an awful lot less expensive, to the point where it is possible for a movie such as this to simply buy them all up as a huge job lot. All are perfectly cast and superb with the exception I fear of Fry whose bumbling clod of an Inspector is mildly amusing but completely unbelievable and belongs in a very different, less serious and naturalistic sort of comedy than is this: like Geraldine Chalplin in 'Nashville' he is the comic touch that doesn't really work. In such a sprawling typically Altmanesque ensemble piece it should be impossible for any actor to dominate but happily no one has explained this to Maggie Smith whose magnificently funny performance effortlessly steal the movie.
It's a hugely enjoyable movie superbly put together. Altman has much with age. It lacks the satirical savagery of a `Nashville' or a `Short Cuts' and a clearly deeply critical take on the puffery, snobbery and often terrible cruelty of this ferociously hierarchical class system is tempered and slightly undermined by a slight but definitely perceptible unmistakeable nostalgic sneaking regard for this nice stable ordered but clearly dying world where everybody knew where they belonged and (mostly) stayed there. So it's an at once contemptuous and affectionate, despairing and humane picture of a bunch of toffs and their servants in the years between the wars with a scene in the middle where they all go off shooting birds in the local woods: it's certainly natural to suppose all this involves considerably more than a nodding glance back to Renoir's `Rules of the Game'. If that is Altman's model of course he hasn't matched it but he's nonetheless made a richly intricate, intelligent and highly enjoyable film.
Movie Review: Sly yet Subtle. Very Worthwile
Summary: 5 Stars
Gosford Park is a most unusual and complex film. Its all about the "getting there," and then when it does "get there" the "gotten" only serves to compliment the "getting." Yes, there is a murder mystery, and yes it is solved, but this only further complicates the characters and their relationships to one another. The revelation of the mystery only affords a greater mystery. So, in all actuality, the ending is only the place where the movie ends and the credits begin. How Gosford Park is all this and still manages to be satisfying is, perhaps, the greatest mystery of all.The plot of Gosford Park is entirely to complex to be neatly tidied up here, besides anything less than a full script would be superficial. I will say, however, that it concerns a massive group of impossibly rich characters, invited to a shooting party circa November 1932. Nearly all of these are restricted to the upstairs (aristocrats) and downstairs (servants). The first half of the film would seem to show the differences between these, but then, ironically, someone is murdered and the film takes the opposite turn. Suddenly, each of these people are all just people, and the only thing dividing them is a set of stairs and musty ideals. Each group is, after all, made up of individuals put in their place solely by chance. In the end everyone has their own specific problems and concerns, that may or may not relate to their class, and are often either paralleled or mingled with the opposite class.
Do these themes resolve the movie? Well, yes and no. In the end the murder is irrelevant, and could have been substituted by any similar scandal or tragedy. It is the characters that matter. We never really find out just who everyone is, but that, the mystery left unsolved, may be the point of the movie. Gosford Park is at first all about surfaces, every character begins a caricature. However, gradually we realize that there is something never completely disclosed going on beneath the surface. Sure there are little revelations throughout, but all they really tell us is that each character is more than meets the eye. In an exact reversal of typical narrative, the characters start out simple and accessible, but end complex and mysterious. So their plights are never really resolved, they may still come away a little bit wiser for their visit.
All of this is made rich by cunning direction, lush photography, and impossibly wonderful performances. That director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, Nashville) manages to drag a brilliant performance out every every member of his whopping 23-character cast is, well, like I said... impossible. But then again Altman really doesn't seem to give a damn. He is one of the most talented directors of our age, and he puts that talent to good use here. He knows the tricks of his trade very well. He can make any character an innocent, a suspect, and all with the angle of his camera. And how he handles that cast...!
Speaking of which, it would take entirely to much text to detail the performances of each main character, as there are so many of them. However, there are two female performances that stand out, and seem to be garnering special attention. Maggie Smith is a show-stealer. She is so wonderfully bitchy and disdainful in her role, really giddy to behold. She manages to teeter perfectly between being a part of her class, and absolutely contemptuous of it. Then, in the opposite light is Helen Mirren. A servant, her performance is composed of subtle glances which tell us just enough of her bitterness, cynicism, and ultimate love, without completely revealing her. She is ultimately very sad, and she suppresses and reveals that sadness in just the right way.
Altman openly claimed his film to be greatly influenced by the classic French film, La Regle Du Jeu, a very similar study of social classes. Does this detract from the film's originality? Not really. Upstairs-Downstairs movies are really a genre all their own. Antiwar films, interracial love stories, teen angst dramas and other specific types of movies all may express very similar themes, but they can also be very unique. Gosford Park expresses the universal ideas of La Regle, but in a different manner. It lifts the themes and settings of the earlier film, and populates them with many different characters, and situations. The tone is different as well...
In Gosford Park Altman takes a very sly, farcical approach to his material. When watching it I got the feeling that he was like a kid throwing rocks into a busy anthill. His murder is his greatest rock, and one the ants spend a great deal of time figuring out how to approach. Should they swarm all over it, stand aside and laugh scornfully, hide away, or blame each other? Altman's ants all take a different approach. In the end there's just this rock sitting in the anthill, and they all leave. Besides, if anyone committed the murder it was Altman himself.
Movie Review: So much depth within those whispers...
Summary: 5 Stars
The more I chew on `Gosford Park', the more I'm convinced that it may very well be Altman's best film. Sure, I haven't seen a lot of his films, and some of them I'm not really all too keen on (his style as a director and screenwriter is an acquired taste, and that said style doesn't work all the time), but this film is really, truly impressive all the way around. The best thing about this film though, is that it ages very well. The first time I saw this film I merely liked it, but as time goes by the memory of this film only gets better, and with recent viewings it has become apparent to me that this particular social commentary only gets better and better with time.
When `Gosford Park' is mentioned, usually the first conversation hinges on the cast, more specifically the large female cast. I'm going to save them for last.
It is 1932 and we are at a large (very large) country house in England. A group of sophisticated socialites have gathered together for a shooting party, and almost instantaneously the distinctions are made and the parties divide; the wealthy to their lackadaisical meanderings, the servants to their countless duties. With a twist of `Clue' proportions thrown in, a man (a very prominent figure) shows up dead and just about everyone is suspect.
For anyone who has delved into Altman's work, the layered texture of this films script will not come as a shock to you. From the very beginning of his career, Altman has built his films on a brisk yet complex interchange of dialog. For me, this film may be the best fit for Altman's use of words, and his ability to capture so much from a mere glimpse of individual communications. As the LARGE ensemble cast confine themselves in corners, whispering knowledge of one another and trying heartily to solve the mystery themselves, Altman paints a profound and engrossing study of humanity. As some have mentioned, this film really sinks into the layers of human complexity, fleshing out the motives to our actions, to our words; the very inner workings that move us to action. It pains me that some dismiss this film without ever really giving it a chance to sink into their minds.
I almost did.
I'm thrilled that Oscar handed out their screenplay award to this film, for it really is a very complex yet attainable work of art. The way that Altman breathily moves from character to character, just as the camera swoons in and out of each room, is just breathtaking. He truly creates real people, and he does so with a tightly woven yet briskly realized collection of conversations that relay the fragility of human frailty without ever losing the earnestness (and humor) needed to create something fresh and entertaining.
And now, we get to the ladies.
I'm going to start by listing them off. Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kristen Scott Thomas, Kelly Macdonald and Emily Watson. Those are just your big names, or recognizable faces, but they really do make the biggest impact. Mirren and Smith were both Oscar nominated, and they were both outstanding in their respective roles. Mirren is, without doubt, the better of the two. Her tortured yet commanding presence perfectly reflects not only her character's social standing (her servitude is very reminiscent of Hopkin's astonishing turn in `The Remains of the Day') but also her inner soul; her person removed from manipulated impressions. I love what Smith does here (her sudden burst of laughter on the couch is especially pristine) but I never thought she particularly deserved an Oscar nomination for it. In fact, the fragility of Macdonald's naivety or the inner rumblings of Watson's guilt were, in my opinion, much more deserving of mention. That said, the only actress here that really can tango with Mirren is Kristen Scott Thomas, the jilted wife and fiery staccato of a woman. I love the coldness she brings to her every movement, and that sensual awkwardness (there is a lanky stiffness to her movements that I adore, for they instantly create naturalness within her character). She really understood how to make the most of her screen time. Now, while she doesn't actually have the emotional punch of Mirren's character, I still feel that Thomas's performance has the slight edge.
I would watch her pace a room before I'd watch anyone else.
So, in the end I highly recommend this. I know I toted this as Altman's finest (and I know that the devoted Altman fan may totally fight me on this) but coming from a man who is not an Altman supporter in the definitive sense, I'd say that that statement is pretty solid. I still fall back and forth between this and `Short Cuts', which is sheer brilliance, but both films are SO different that it is really hard to compare and or judge. Personally, at this very moment, if I had to chose between the two (as in which film I'd rather sit down and watch right now), I'd go with `Gosford Park'.
Movie Review: Altman at his peak !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
NOTE: IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ THIS REVIEW PRIOR TO SEEING THE FILM IT WILL NOT SPOIL ANY OF THE MOVIE FOR YOU. When Altman is good, he's very good and here, he's at the top of his game and is supported with a strong cast--perhaps the finest ensemble acting you've seen in years, and a strong script.
Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" should be also be used by film directors as they prepare their films. It could be used in the same way that professional boxers go to Boxing Camp to get into shape before a fight. Altman demonstrates what a perfectly directed film looks like. Every scene in the film seems to have been staged to an incomprehensible level of absolute perfection. Not only do we have Altman's signature scenes full of characters doing bits of business with our focus being directed via levels of dialogue sound to particular spots on the screen, but also we have dozens of scenes that are mini-movies in themselves. Characters enter, say a line, do a bit of business, the perspective shifts seamlessly to reveal another bit of information and that character does their business and then turns and observes other characters talking and revealing more information. All of this is done through dialogue that is natural, often over-lapping and never over-written (although in this film several lines have a wonderful polished literalness to them). Every actor and nearly all the performances seem to be emanating from actors who have been working with this material and each other for several years. In reality the cast only had a few weeks worth of rehearsal and so the seamless manner in which the performances gel is due to the actors and the man in charge --Robert Altman. Altman is in charge of nearly every film that bears his name. His focus is usually on a different way to tell the story and it's always more concerned with character than with plot. Despite what may you have read or heard he's not very interested in anarchy or in being subversive, he just wants to make films that would interest him and often those are also films that would interest us. He is willing to try things, experiment and fail rather than to play it too safe or to not make an attempt to do something a little different than he perceives it's been done before.
"Gosford Park" takes place in November 1932 and is set on the luxurious English country estate belonging to Sir William McCordle (Michael Gamon). McCordle is a man who has made his money through ownership of boot factories and sweatshops. He has invited over a dozen aristocrats and their servants to his estate for a weekend Quail/Pheasant shooting party. Several of the guests owe their livelihoods to Sir William. Others have their own reasons or agendas for attending the gathering. I won't spoil the charms and discoveries of the film by revealing too much. It is best if you let the film reveal the characters, their relations to one another and how everyone relates to each other. Various motives will be revealed, but not always in the ways you expect. Pay close attention and be richly rewarded. I was not absolutely sure who was going to be murdered when I saw the film and since the murder doesn't occur until the film is nearly two-thirds over, it added an extra layer of enjoyment to the film. Enjoyment? Yes....after all, if a piano fell on the head of half of these characters it would be far from a tragic occurrence.
The tone of the film might have been described by a writer pitching a studio executive in Altman's The Player as a cross between Remains of the Day; Murder on the Orient Express, PBS's Upstairs Downstairs and Noel Coward's Private Lives (or lesser-known Hay Fever). Since you know it's a murder mystery, you're probably paying attention right from the start for various clues. You won't be disappointed for there's a lingering shot past some bottles of Poison foreshadowing what will undoubtedly occur. Remember, however this is an Altman film and the only thing you can count on is that when something familiar or cliché'd is introduced it is too be twisted and altered in an unfamiliar way. This is a particularly welcome development to be added to a genre as familiar as a 'cozy' English murder mystery. In deed it is the details and colorful characters that Altman is most interested in...and so are we.
The murder and even the who-done-it isn't what is important here though, it's the characters and their relation to one another.
Space limits me saying much more about it except that this film is almost a masterpiece and certainly one of the very best films of the year.
Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed,ground-breaking steamy suspense thriller.