Gosford Park
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Movie Reviews of Gosford Park
Movie Review: Altman crosses Agatha Christie with Merchant-Ivory
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Altman doesn't need to copy anyone. The director of "Nashville" and the film version of "M*A*S*H" has a recognizable style that would serve as an excellent template for ensemble cast films. In Gosford Park he applies that wonderfully witty style to a production that initially looks like one of those wonderful Merchant-Ivory features with gentlemen in tuxedos and ladies in elegant gowns strolling around a British Manor.
The cast is chock-a-block full of gifted English performers - some of them recognizable to American viewers: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon just before donning the long beard of Albus Dumbledore in the most recent Harry Potter films, Kristin Scott Thomas. "Look, there's.... whatsisname" I thought often.
The story establishes a busy "upstairs/downstairs" feel as the rich and titled are invited to visit the manor of Bambon's Sir William McCordle for a shooting party. Those rich lords and ladies walk and talk and gossip upstairs while downstairs the equally interesting maids and butlers walk and talk and gossip.
About halfway through the film one of the titled is murdered and the rest of the film follows the outline of one of those Agatha Christie whodunits, but the richness and complexity of the characters and their interactions with one another are in a definite Altman style that make you care about these characters and whodunit in a way that is deeper than Dame Agatha's fine stories. You find that half of the upstairs houseguests have a motive, and you discover the same about the servants downstairs. The movie pays meticulous attention to the distinction between classes and position and income. Maggie Smith Sir William's Sister, Constance, is by position the Countess of Trentham, but she is completely dependent on her brother's allowance to maintain even the appearance of a lavish lifestyle. The servants downstairs know that they are not in the class of those upstairs, but they are further divided in that their rank among the fellow servants is reflected by the rank of their employer. At the servant's dinner table they are seated by the rank of their boss upstairs. They are even called by the name of their employer.
Altman definitely differs from Christie in that you come to form sorts of emotional attachments to some of these characters. By the denouement you have come to care about what has happened, and the weight of whodunit has a depth that is far beyond simply "who's going to jail". It's a rewarding way to spent a couple of hours.
Movie Review: Upstairs and downstairs
Summary: 5 Stars
A weekend in a fabulous mansion of the countryside between blue-blood aristocrats and a murder is the perfect excuse to reunite to one of the most talented groups of British actors in the new film of Robert Altman, Gosford Park.
In this acute social satire, the veteran director presents/displays the exaggerated pretentiousness of the English high class and the relations between masters and servants, outlining clearly the values and opposed attitudes of each class.
Completely narrated from the point of view of the servants, Gosford Park is an acute observation of the division of classes that characterized England in the thirties.
In 1932, Gosford Park is the magnificent house of Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife, the glamorous Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas). To a weekend celebration that includes hunting and abundant banquets attend a spoiled countess (Maggie Smith), a movie producer (Bob Balaban), a matinee idol (Jeremy Northam) and the sisters of Lady Sylvia.
Under the sumptuous rooms of the rich, the austere floors of the help contain a group so impressive as the one above, which includes Jennings, the main butler (Alan Bats), Sir William's valet (Sir Derek Jacobi) and the other help members who come with their masters, from the suspect Harry Denton (Ryan Phillipe) to the ingenuous Mary (Kelly MacDonald). All the personnel are supervised by Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren), the cook (Eileen Atkins) and Elsie (Emily Watson).
The story goes on between the financial and sexual goings and comings of the masters and their servants. Plots and subplots are mere instruments so these characters receive their dose of scandal, gadgets, rumors, treason, sexual tension and murder.
Altman, specialist in films with long casts, demonstrates that he hasn't lost his spark and playfulness. For each laughter and playful moment, there's a dark and surprise turn. Gosford Park is so jammed of guests and servants, that the disappearance of a knife goes unnoticed, until it appears in the chest of one of the main characters.
But to explore the criminal genre is clearly not Altman's intention; rather it is to make fun of it. The clues are so obvious and the clumsy detective (Stephen Fry) is so obtuse that he destroys more evidence than the ones he collects. As to be expected, there's more than one suspect, and no character is 100% innocent. Not the one upstairs and much less those downstairs. Everybody is guilty, because everybody has a secret.
Movie Review: No man is a hero to his valet, or his housekeeper either
Summary: 5 Stars
Marvelous ensemble work characterizes this depiction of 1930s British aristocracy and their equally interesting servants. My only complaint? The wealthy characters needed to be called by their names often, early on in the picture. Since so much of the dialogue is below stairs gossip, if you can't put a face to the name, you're sunk! That's why I had to see the movie a second time, to get it all straight. However, even if that hadn't been the case, I still would have seen "Gosford Park" a second time, and I will probably acquire it for my private libary once it's available. Beastly old chap with a youngish bored wife and a neurotic daughter has a bevy of houseguests for a weekend shooting party: a sharp-tongued countess with her hand out for more money, a cinema star along with a Hollywood movie producer, a titled suitor for the daughter along with his somewhat undersexed sidekick, one sister-in-law with whom the old chap displays a tad too much familiarity, another sister-in-law with her vertically challenged husband whose business deal is just about to be pulled out of by the old chap, and a cad (plus wife) who's looking for a job and blackmailing the daughter. Had enough yet? Well, there's the whole downstairs staff, both those living regularly in the great house and the servants of all the visitors. In their way, they're bigger snobs than the upstairs crew, with their emphasis on place and hierarchy. Well, seems there's a type of social mobility around here, at least sexually, as innuendos abound about who's sleeping with whom, or at least did once upon a time. But don't get me wrong--this isn't any romp or bedroom farce. It's an excellent serious study of life in service in England between the wars and the somewhat immoral ways of the aristocracy being served. There is comedy, but mostly black humor, especially after a certain someone is found murdered and a police investigation sheds some inadvertent light on long-ago secrets.
Do note, though, that only those who know something about this sort of thing already will be able to enjoy it. The first time I saw this, it was with a German woman and an Argentinian man. I think Sabine did okay, but Jorge was out to sea, what with the myriad of British Isles accents, 1930s slang expressions, and country gentry mores. My brother, on the second outing, summed up by saying, "Doesn't put a foot wrong once, except that it's a little long." Definitely an acquired taste, but what a taste!
Movie Review: Recipe for Lasting Success
Summary: 5 Stars
Take an 'idea' by Bob Balaban and Robert Altman, transform that idea into a screenplay by Julian Fellowes, place Robert Altman in the director's chair, and gather many of the finest actors in England (and the USA), photograph it with Andrew Dunn as cinematographer, and assign the musical score to Patrick Doyle and presto! - out comes a bubbling movie that entertains on every level and makes a lot of statements about class distinction and other prejudices as well. GOSFORD PARK is a gem of a film and only grows better with repeated viewings.
Gosford Park is the estate owned by grumpy William McCordle (Michael Gambon) who has a way of distancing most everyone he encounters, his bored wife Sylvia (Kristen Scott Thomas), his frumpy daughter Isobel (Camilla Rutherford), and served by a staff of servants who include the very in control Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren), the butler Jennings (Alan Bates), and the head of the kitchen Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins). A weekend hunting party is underway and as the guests arrive the dichotomy between the wealthy and the serving class is emphasized. Among the odd assortment of guests (each with a pack of secrets and prejudices) are Maggie Smith, Tom Hollander, Charles Dance, Bob Balaban, Jeremy Northam, James Wilby, and their valets and servants Clive Owen, Kelly Macdonald, Ryan Phillippe, etc. The servants are incorporated into the staff rooms by the strange Emily Watson, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Swift et al. The arrival evening drops a few hints of problems afoot both among the guests and among the servants. The hunting party is scarred by a minor accident, but the real problem occurs at the dinner following the hunting party - a time when some of the occult problems become more obvious and culminate in the murder of the vile William McCordle. The police are called and Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) uncovers some strange evidence that leads to not only the events of the murder but also unveils many of the secrets of both guests and servants. There is a surprise ending that somehow makes all of the characters seem more human than their artificial roles they have assumed.
This is a banquet of fine acting and ensemble work and adds such treasures as a series of songs performed by Jeremy Northam with great style as well as unexpected cameos by a large number of lesser-known actors. It is a fine mystery, Altman style, and is as frothy and refreshing as fine champagne! Grady Harp, April 08
Movie Review: Complex, Witty, and Extremely Entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
Murder mysteries are a very rigid genre, for they carry very strong audience expectations: it will include at least one murder, there will be clues indicating the identity of the killer if one is sharp enough to see them, and the story will conclude with the revelation of the killer. Given its strictness, it is not a genre that one would normally associate with director Robert Altman, who has built a career on a style that gives equal weight to myriads of detail both important and inconsequential and then draws all into a multi-layered thematic whole. And yet in GOSFORD PARK Altman's peculiar style serves not only his broader intent, it serves the genre as well--and it does so to great effect.Like most Altman films, GOSFORD PARK presents us with a wide array of personalities, in this case shown against the backdrop of a 1930s English countryside shooting party where a number of unsavory story lines unfold before us in the form of remarks overheard in passing and details caught out of the corner of the eye. And in this respect, Altman becomes almost as Agatha Christie as Christie herself, distracting us with certain relationships and events even while he clearly specifies the drift toward murder--and the motive behind it--in clear view at one side. But like most Altman films, GOSFORD PARK is about a great deal more than any simple plot summary can indicate. Even while presenting us with a classic murder mystery it is as much about the cruelty of a rigid class system and the manner in which it destorts the personalities of both master and servant, even at a point in time when the control of the ruling class has begun to slip. Surprisingly, however, even these themes play into both the crime and its solution, and the result is a much neater package than generally found in an Altman film.
Altman, who works in a mosaic-like style, is an extremely problematic director in the sense that you either like his work a great deal or you dislike it with considerable intensity. GOSFORD PARK, which features a particularly fine ensemble cast even for an Altman film, will not change the opinion of either group, and for all its success the film does not attain the same shocking sharpness and breadth of his penultimate statement, NASHVILLE. But even so, it is Altman at his best and in an somewhat more accessible form than usual, and I recommend it very strongly.