Gosford Park
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Movie Reviews of Gosford Park
Movie Review: One of my Top Ten of 2001
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Altman began his career over fifty years ago in television, directing episodes of early popular shows like "Route 66" and Maverick". Who'd have thought he would go on to direct some of the most interesting movies ever made, or that at the beginning of the 21st Century, he'd still be going strong? Like anyone whose career has spanned more than half a century, he has had his peaks and valleys. Movies like "M.A.S.H." and "Nashville" made him famous in the early 1970s. For the next two decades his work was so hit and miss that some thought he'd lost his touch, but he came roaring back in the 1990s with pictures like "The Player" and Short Cuts". Now comes "Gosford Park", one of his best works ever. The English countryside, 1932. Sir William McCordle [Michael Gambon] and his wife, Lady Sylvia [Kristin Scott Thomas] have invited a dozen guests for the weekend. They arrive with their servants, who disappear downstairs while their employers go up to the lavish suites and drawing rooms of Gosford Park House. While the grand ladies and gentlemen are doing their best to impress and entertain each other, the servants are busy seeing to it that everything runs smoothly. The intrigue and gossip downstairs is at least as complex and interesting as it is upstairs. Class and tradition may separate the two groups, but, as the story moves along, we see that they are actually connected in all sorts of ways. Everything runs smoothly until someone [or perhaps more than one] rudely kills the host.... Twice!
After the murder, the plot gets a little murky, but most viewers will be having too much fun to care. Altman movies are rarely about story. They are about the characters. His genius lies in his ability to take a script with many speaking parts and make all of the characters distinct and memorable. Most directors can't handle more than six or seven characters. "Gosford Park" has over thirty.
The legendary Maggie Smith is a real scene-stealer as the shrewd, witty and acerbic Constance, Sir William's not-so-devoted sister. Ms. Smith can make you laugh just by twitching her lip or raising an eyebrow. Helen Mirren plays Mrs. Wilson, head housekeeper of Gosford Park. She knows everyone's secrets. Stephen Fry is Inspector Thompson, who is more interested in the trappings of his job than he is in actually finding out who killed Sir William, while Alan Bates is Jennings, the head butler who knows he's at the top of his profession. The list of players goes on and on. Some roles are larger than others are, but none of the actors seems to mind. They say that working with Altman is a joy.
"Gosford Park", by the way, is a comedy. It has a lot to say about class structure and the way people interact with one another. It shows how people often say one thing and mean another or use words as verbal swords. But Altman never preaches. He's one of life's keenest observers. It's a joy to share his observations.
Movie Review: Incomparable Altman
Summary: 5 Stars
Altman followers will have no trouble seeing in "Gosford Park" the auteur's favorite themes and devices--a preoccupation with time and place over "story," an intersecting repertory of actors whose various characters are subtly and gradually disclosed through their interaction, protracted shots with significant visual information planted in all corners of the screen, an audio track characterized by overlapping dialogue and multiple conversations. Add to all this Altman's respect for actors who contribute their own ideas to the script and his ability to seize and incorporate the serendipitous, and the results can be purely exhilarating cinema. At its best ("Nashville"), Altman's approach produces films that imitate and criticize life like few others, evoking spinetingling epiphanies during the film experience and indelible memories afterwards. At its worst ("Ready to Wear," "Kansas City") the results are little more than tedious, meaningless exercises in cinematic self-indulgence.What distinguishes "Gosford Park" from much of Altman's previous work is the director's exercising of a much firmer hand over the proceedings. Altman usually eschews film scores, preferring to go with source music ("Nashville") or no music at all. "Gosford Park," on the other hand, is a heavily scored movie, a device that insures narrative form and plot continuity not to mention a "melodramatic" heightening of emotion felt by both characters and spectator.
To describe the film as a satire on the crumbling of residual, anachronistic aristocratic values and class distinctions in the 20th century is to do it injustice. True, Altman uses social distinctions, new vs. old money, master vs. servant class, Hollywood actors who play roles for a living vs. the served and servants who live because of their roles. And he throws in stereotypes of plot and character that somehow work--enlivening the proceedings while drawing both the satire and more subtle characterizations into sharper focus.
But Altman's satire on class, British culture, and literary and film genres themselves are all merely vehicles for his exploration of characters, of their dreams and desires, and above all the consequences of repressed and thwarted desire. If there's a flaw in the film, it's Altman's failure to bring out the degree to which even the most "liberated" of characters fall prey to their freedom. "Gosford Park" leaves us with the picture of a servant class making touch with its own feelings, daring to imagine a life of expressed desires and personal happiness as a consequence. Only the stinging depiction and indictment of the ruling class carry any hint that personal freedom has its own liabilities.
"Gosford Park" is not the epiphany that "Nashville" is, but it's a brilliant cinematic house of mirrors, casting reflections and meanings that can only multiply upon repeated viewings.
Movie Review: A Top-Notch Cast in the Hands of a Top-Notch Director
Summary: 5 Stars
'Gosford Park' will, unfortunately, not appeal to everyone. Some will think it moves too slow, some will think there's not enough action, and some will not want to keep up with all the characters. That's too bad, but for those who stick with it, 'Gosford Park' will be a wonderful movie experience.The plot is simple. In November, 1932, Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) has invited friends and family to his country estate for a hunting weekend. Everyone arrives with his or her baggage, physical and emotional. Director Altman expertly allows the viewer to eavesdrop on bits and pieces of seemingly random conversations that serve not so much to give us plot information, but to give us an insight into the characters and their lives. And to pave the way for murder.
The first half of the film is a brilliant look at the rich and their servants. The attendants are often treated as part of the furniture. Often the wealthy guests carry on intimate conversations among themselves with the servants clearly in earshot. But they are servants, their job is to serve, not to report conversations. But when the rich are alone with their servants, they confide in them and share information they would never share with anyone else. Altman does a masterful job of showing us that even though this is an English estate from 70 years past, things really haven't changed much.
Many excellent characters are present in the film. Sir William seems bored with the charade of hosting this event and seems to want to spend time only with his dog and his mistress. The feelings are mostly mutual. His dog seems to be the only one present who really loves him. Bob Balaban is wonderful as American movie director Morris Weissman, who is more concerned about filming his next Charlie Chan movie than the real-life murder right under his nose.
While all these character revelations are important and fascinating, they do go on perhaps a bit longer than they should. After all, the film is past the halfway point before the murder is even committed. But as the film moves closer towards the conclusion, viewers will begin to piece together all the information presented during the first hour to find a solution. I would almost say that the solution is not as important as the journey getting there, but it is important because of its power.
In watching the film, I almost thought that the movie did not deserve the R rating. The rating was put there for some language and some very brief [love] situations, but probably to help define the audience. Kids would probably not enjoy the film at all. The same could probably be said for action-crazed teenagers. However, if you enjoy interesting characters portrayed by a stellar cast in the hands of a masterful director, 'Gosford Park' is for you. Enjoy.
Running time: 2 hours 16 minutes
Movie Review: The world through the eyes of the majority
Summary: 5 Stars
At first sight Gosford Park appears to be just another country weekend movie featuring British aristocracy and their hangers on with a murder thrown in. That is not what this is. Beneath the tip of that iceberg of the rich and titled, roars a mighty engine of people working hard, getting little respect, and having lives of equal value, overlooked oppressed, but creators of all there is in this worldMy grandmother's friends from church were all women who sometime in their lives had been servants, whether they had become social workers, teachers, or house wives. Inevitably, when they would come over after church, a discussion of "their people" they had worked for as servants would break out. It was always the same thing, of the incapacity of people used to paying people to do things to achieve simple tasks, look at things from common sense, and despite their self-images as beneficent employers how "their people" constantly overloaded them with tasks beyond their job, and had absolutely no concern or knowledge of their needs to take time off for personal or health reasons. Sneaking and listening to them, I heard many rather dramatic things about movers and shakers in our town and the national from these old women.
Not much changes. About 15 years ago, a friend who had been a writer and editor for years moved to California. Through an old high school friend, he landed a job working in the home of a very prominent movie star, a job that was supposed to get him set up financially and a job that would end up getting him in touch with people in the movies and the papers that could land him a job or provide contact for his own writing. When, I went to visit him, he had the same kinds of stories and stupidities to tell that those ladies who were friends of my grandmother told. Moreover, no one would bother to talk to him about his writing and editing, because none of the people he would want to know about his work because none of them noticed him because he was a servant.
In a superbly acted movie, with great roles for everyone, we see how this world operates. Altman's brilliance here is that all this is done in a human, compelling, often funny, sometimes gripping manner.
On the DVD you will listen to the writer of the film explain how each thing you think may be a wild exaggeration, or some weird exception in the behavior of the upper classes was something he himself saw or heard friends and relatives say or do.
Of course, it is not just the servants in the big houses, but all the working people all around the world whose work is hidden, who needs are abused, who provide the basis for everything and get no recognition. Maybe we ought to change that too. Click on the about me tab above to find many books on Amazon about making THAT change!
Movie Review: Brilliant Ensemble Cast - Outstanding Entertainment!
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Robert Altman serves up an atypical drama/whodunit, set on an English country estate, the "Gosford Park" of the title, during a weekend of pheasant hunting. The superb ensemble cast gives outstanding performances, and an in-depth glimpse of the British class system. Multiple plots and subplots are woven together seamlessly to provide taut suspense, fascinating character studies, and various suspects and motives for the murder of a man killed twice. We are also given more than a glimpse of lives led both Upstairs and Downstairs, and the snobbery and pecking order which exist on all levels.
Set in the early 1930's, Sir William McCordle, (Michael Gambon), and his wife, the much younger, acrimonious Lady Sylvia, (Kristin Scott Thomas), entertain a group of aristocrats, and non-titled social climbers, for a shooting party. The guests arrive with their servants in tow. Lady Sylvia despises her husband for his lack of blue blood, love of money and lecherous ways. She takes her pleasure elsewhere. Intrigue, rivalry, venomous feelings, envy, and sexual escapades abound on all floors of the manse, and gossip is rampant and delicious. Maggie Smith is wonderful as the Countess of Trentham, who peers through her lorgnette and tosses-off barbed comments at one and all - except the man who holds the purse strings. She is dependent on Sir William for her allowance, which he threatens to put a halt to. Ivor Novello, (Jeremy Northam), is a Hollywood movie star and English matinee idol. A distant relation of the McCordles, he was invited on the condition that he entertain the other guests with music and song. He accepts in order to wangle an invitation for his colleague, American movie producer, Morris Weissman, (Bob Balaban). Weissman, who spends most of the movie on the telephone, talking long distance with honchos in Hollywood, is researching the lives of the rich and infamous for an upcoming film, ''Charlie Chan in London."
Below stairs, head housemaid Elsie, (Emily Watson), spontaneously outs herself as Sir William's lover. Helen Mirren gives an exceptional performance as the head housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, "the perfect servant. The seemingly naive Mary Macearchran, (Kelly Macdonald), is the Countess' lady's maid. She is much more astute and observant than anyone would give her credit for. Stephen Fry is funny as the police inspector, of the Clouseau school of sleuthing, and provides comic relief. This is entertainment at its best.
"Gosford Park," written by Julian Fellowes from a concept by Mr. Altman and Bob Balaban, won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Amazingly, Altman was 76 years-old when he made the film.
JANA