Gosford Park

[Cap'n Al]

Well, let's be honest, it would have been more of a surprise if the film had been rubbish than anything else. An absolutely terrific cast (and it really isn't fair to pick out individual performances, although Emily Watson and Maggie Smith might be the pick of a very, very good bunch), a fascinatingly detailed look at the English inter-war class system and a gripping murder mystery; Altman has finally returned to <i>Short Cuts</i> form, and it wouldn't be at all surprising to watch the film pick up award after award. Highly recommended.

[buffy-fan]

I agree it was a seriously good film whether or not it will win awards i am not sure. It was well acted yet the characters were nothing more than stereotypes and the actors were not exactely pushed to their limits, also these type of films do not do well act the oscars not gungho american enough shame as it is a good film, which will probably garner Altman with a best director nomination, yet Lynch fully deserves it! Overall great entertaining film, depsite my negative comments above!!!

[cedge]

I thought the cast and the acting was superb but, the story moved along very slowly and left no time for the murder mystery which IMO was unsatisfying and could of been better.

Plus some aspects of the story and connections between people I have still not worked out, maybe a repeat viewing will be required on my part. Richard E Grant is superb though.

Chris

[camaj]

I agree with cedge. I just saw it and I thought it could have been quicker. True, it was a fascinating look at the whole class thing and it was funny in parts but overall it wasn't that good. If they had played the murder part up it would have been more interesting.

[Michael Brooke]

It’s enormously entertaining on the surface, and I fully agree Maggie Smith is worth the price of admission on her own – but it’s depressing to see that Altman seemingly has absolutely nothing original to say about a subject that has been done to death umpteen million times, and some of the set-pieces were so hoary (hey, look – the lower orders appreciate Ivor Novello much more than the upper classes he’s playing for!) that I kept waiting for a <I>Player</I>-style satirical punchline that never came.

It’s equally irritating that for all the undoubted excellence of the cast, most of the parts they’re playing are the broadest possible caricatures – there are precious few of the nuances that you get with Altman films that are closer to home ground. It’s doubly a pity, given that Renoir’s <I>La Regle du Jeu</I> was such an obvious inspiration (the films have too much in common for this to be a coincidence), as Altman is quite capable of being as generous with his characters as Renoir when he’s at his best.

So while I thoroughly recommend it for sheer entertainment value, I can’t help but feel it’s a badly missed opportunity as far as posterity goes – and in the Altman canon as a whole, it’s middling at best.

[wong fei hong]

I saw the trailer last night, and Ryan Phillipe's accent cracked the whole cinema up. Is it awful and/or deliberate? I know you can't trust trailers for the full story, but it seemed to be beyond bad.

[Michael Brooke]

Let’s just say, without giving away any spoilers, that his character isn’t all that he seems to be…

[camaj]

Micheals making it sound a bit more exciting than it actually is. I too thought his accent is awful but the question I'm still asking myself is if that is the best he can do

[wong fei hong]

Michael may be 'talking it up' a little... but he's assuaged my worries a little, too. The combination of cast/Altman/possible reason for someone talking like that has me intrigued enough to go see.

Tickets!

[McD]

Mediocre.

If Altman’s name wasn’t attached I don’t think it would be getting all this hullabaloo. It’s worth a watch, but it’s nothing special – not by a long shot.

With The Player it was fun to see how many well known actors Altman could waste on screen. It’s no fun here however. What were Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi even doing here? They’ve paid enough dues not to be in complete non-roles like this. Even Alan Bates has only one drunken fall to his credit when all is tallied up at the end. But, oh, it’s Altman. Ok then!

Many of the cast who do get more than a cameo are either played typecast to the eyeballs (Kirstin Scott Thomas) or are major misfires (Stephen Fry). Nice turns from Gambon and Smith, but nothing to get in a twist over.

It’s no great satirical masterpiece. And the story, when all is said and done, is pretty lame. If you want to see an old school British cast getting down to basics in a slow burning movie – go and see the far superior Last Orders instead. It’s different class compared to Gosford Park, believe me.

And I’m almost certainly not the first to make the comparison, but if you want to see how the Upper Class and their servants mixed between the wars, check out Remains of the Day instead. The gulf in quality between the two pictures is staggering. And not in Altman’s favour.

[umajets]

Why is this a 15 certificate? Just wondering cos my mother wants me to take her to see it and I'd like any prior knowledge of upstairs downstairs rumpy pumpy etc. :)

Strange question I know .. please humour me :D

[Michael Brooke]

A certain word proscribed by these forums is uttered occasionally, and there’s a somewhat graphic glimpse of below-stairs sexual activity. None of it’s especially shocking, but a 15 certificate seems about right.

My mum loved it, for the record.

[umajets]

Thanks Michael

Now to try and find a cinema near here that's actually showing it :)

[camino_real]

I've just been to see this in Didsbury. 2.00 p.m. performance and a 75% full house, not bad for a "grown up" movie. The crowd was aged over 30 for the most part and everybody seemed to enjoy it. As with many of Altmans films I always get the feeling that at any moment it could all fall apart, but not in this case. Sure we've seen some of it before but it's so well handled and the cast underplay it so well (with the exception of Stephen Fry) that it works like a charm. I found the revelations at the end strangly moving, but then I'm a big softie.

[Gary Couzens]

I couldn't get in to see it in Guildford this afternoon - all three shows today had sold out. So I'll try again in a few days. Shouldn't this tell the powers that be that they should move it to a bigger auditorium?

[Morpheus2000]

Gosford Park is set just after the events of World War 1, in which Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) has invited several aristocratic friends for a weekend's shooting to his estate. These aristocrats have their own servants, which they have little or no regard for. It's quite funny in parts with sarcasm and dry wit coming from all angles.

One of the guests is actually a movie producer, Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban - Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2010) who has no interest in hunting, but is going to make a film about a group British aristocrats in a guesthouse and one of them is murdered. This adds a bit of irony to the film, but not much. On the second night one of the group is murdered and each of the guests have their own reason for killing the victim.

Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) arrives on the scene fairly quickly to investigate the said murder. The viewer is hoping for a "who done it affair?", but he's a useless detective and there's no hope in a solution to the case. Thompson does add a bit more humour to the film but this is not what the viewer deserves. Which begs the question, how did Thompson become an inspector?

The film starts off quite while, but after the murder the viewer is left with is a bumbling detective, which is more of a kind of slapstick humour and the sarcastic dry wit is gone. By the end of the film you're wondering what was the point of it all? Watchable stuff since performances are very good from everyone, but not enough to save a really average film though.