Movie review: Gosford Park

Gosford Park  (2001)

Directed by: Robert Altman

Screenplay: Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman, Bob Balaban.

Cast: Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hellen Mirren, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Charles Dance, Clive Owen, Tom Hollander

Plot:

Set in the 1930's, the story takes place in an old fashioned English country house, owned by Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his much younger, glamorous wife, lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas). One November day they decide to organize a nice shooting party, inviting just family and friends – two sisters-in-law with their husbands, a cousin with friends, an elderly, imperious Aunt Constance (Maggie Smith), who arrives with her new maid, Mary (Kelly Macdonald). Well, almost everybody arrives with a valet or a maid in tow.

As far as the busy servants are concerned, the weekend's chief excitement stems from the presence of Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), Sir William's cousin who is an enormously successful composer and a film star. Accompanying him is a Hollywood movie producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) who wants an opportunity to research English upper-class life for his next movie; tending to Weissman is his shifty valet, Henry (Ryan Phillippe).

Observing the interactions of the guests we can notice immediately that almost nobody joined the party just to have fun in the scenic English countryside. Elderly Sir William is rich and his favours might make or break the fortune of other family members. Everyone, from the servants to the venerable Aunt Constance, who urgently needs her regular allowance to keep up appearances, seems unhealthily reliant upon Sir William's largesse or the lack  thereof.  As the weekend goes on and different secrets are revealed, it  turns out that almost everyone, no matter above or below stairs, bears a bigger or smaller grudge against Sir William. He has always been an unpleasant, selfish, ruthless man and he doesn't intend to improve. How far will they go to get what they want and who will be the fastest?

What I liked:

The cast is really splendid –everybody seems to be the right person in the right place. Of the two dozen actors with significant screen time, Smith is the best when it comes to steal a scene, knowing just how to maximize her opportunities. "Me, I haven't a snobbish bone in my body!" – really I almost cried with laughter hearing that! Even more impressive, but not so funny, is Mirren's repressed Wilson, a woman who has covered deep sorrow and pangs of conscience by working 24/7 and building absolute authority in her domain. Also Kristin Scott Thomas is not bad as the cold-hearted, snobbish, dissolute Lady Sylvia.

I loved the deft blend of  masters and servants’ stories and a very acute analysis of pre-war British class structure, with all that horrible formality and snobbery on both sides. Really few films have ever taken so much trouble to show how a house like this actually worked in all its specifics.

Using an Agatha Christie murder mystery scheme in which everyone is forced to remain in a big house as a crime is investigated, was a clever trick to keep all these “interesting creatures” a little longer together, allowing them to interact and cheat each other. The fact that the mystery actually strays from any Christie book I found very refreshing. 

The murder of Sir William is definitely not the of the story's pivotal moment and the sleuth who investigates it differs greatly from either Monsieur Poirot or Miss Marple; however, because of that fact, he becomes definitely more lifelike. Waving his pipe about, airily asking insipid questions and not even thinking about the investigating possibilities among the servants, the police inspector (Stephen Fry) seems to lack any zeal for his job or even normal human curiosity – he just wants to do his duty and return home, that’s what he is paid for. Poirot would be scandalized but it is a typical  behaviour, isn't it? After all who cares why a filthy rich, nasty aristocrat was murdered by one of his equally nasty but a lot poorer relatives and/or friends?

 

Finally the costumes by Jenny Beavan are uncommonly detailed and generally every scenery detail is a feast for the eyes.

What I didn’t like:

I liked pretty much everything but there are a few things I would like to mention here. There are so many characters here that you spend a good deal of time trying to sort out who's related to whom, what the pecking order is downstairs, etc. I hope to get it better after watching the movie for the second time. Also if you expect plenty of sensational, action-movie scenes you might be disappointed – the whole murder investigation is just a pretext to keep all the characters together. Even the murder itself is not presented in an exciting way.

 

Final verdict:

A delightful movie, worth owning as a DVD, especially if you like the period.

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