Gosford Park Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)January 16th, 2002
GOSFORD PARK (2001) HHH out of 4. Starring Michael Gambon, Kristen Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Charles Dance, James Wilby, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson, Richard E. Grant, Ryan Phillippe, Eileen Atkins and Kelly Macdonald. Music by Patrick Doyle. Written by Julian Fellowes. Based upon an idea by Robert Altman and Bob Balaban. Directed by Robert Altman. Rated R. Running time: 137 minutes.
In Gosford Park, director Robert Altman brings his inimitable style of filmmaking to a staple of cinema and literature — the drawing room murder mystery.
Altman’s seamless amalgamation of Masterpiece Theatre, Upstairs Downstairs and Agatha Christie nets enjoyable results.
No messages here, merely outright movie entertainment with an all-star, mostly British, cast.
Gosford Park plays out like a parlor game or a high society version of Clue. What begins as a look at class differences is rudely transformed into a very polite whodunit.
Working from a script by Julian Fellowes, based upon on idea by Altman and actor Bob Balaban, the identity of the murder victim and the killer are not really that important in the overall scheme.
What is more fascinating to Altman are the rituals and prejudices of the English upper class in which manners and correctness take precedence over common decency, consideration and compassion.
Altman works with one the strongest ensemble casts he has ever gathered: Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Charles Dance, James Wilby, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson, Richard E. Grant and Ryan Phillippe are just some of the recognizable faces who serve or are being served at Gosford Park.
Gosford Park is steeped in grace and style, yet an undercurrent of tension buzzes throughout the proceedings.
You watch the thoughtlessness and snobbish manner of these supposed gentle men and women and are astonished at their off-handed cruelties not only to those who serve them but to each other.
Fellowes dialogue is filled with witty repartee and retorts as these upper crust curios verbally skewer each other.
And life downstairs reflects the events in the higher circles. The servants also have their own social structure with valets and kitchen maids being lorded over by head butlers and housekeepers.
The number of people of whom you need keep track, plus their relationships to each other is Gosford Park’s main drawback. After a while you become dazed trying to remember who is related to whom and which servant or maid works for which master or mistress.
At about two hours and 17 minutes, Gosford Park begins to lose a bit of steam, especially with the introduction of a bumbling Scotland Yard inspector and his wiser assistant who appear to have stepped out of a Monty Python sketch.
But these minor distractions should not in any way discourage you from viewing Gosford Park.
This enjoyable romp plays like a throwback to the films of the 1930s, when movies focused on the peccadilloes of the rich and titled in order to distract audiences from the hard economic times enveloping them.
Gosford Park, then, should be appreciated as the kind of escapist fare we need today.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found by going to www.jconline.com and clicking on golafayette.
Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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