Holy crap Batman, there sure are a lot of characters in the movie Gosford Park. Do you know what that means? You actually have to pay attention to the film in order to follow it. The director of the film is the venerable Robert Altman who also came up with the idea about the film (which the opening credits tell you), from which Julian Fellowes wrote the screenplay. Now on with the show.

Our setting is the 30s where a rather extended family of dukes, counts, and the like are gathering for a pheasant hunt (the birds, not medieval poor people) at Sir William McCordle’s country manor in bloody old England. As the guests gather we are introduced to a plethora of different characters consisting mainly of aristocrats (some of which are rather poor) and the rest being the servants. Besides William there is his much younger wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas of Life as a House), the sister Isobel McCordle (Camilla Rutherford), the bitchy Constance who is the Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith from Harry Potter), Freddie & Mabel Nesbit (James Wilby & Claudie Blakley), Lord & Lady Stockbridge (Charles Dance & Geraldine Somerville), Lt. Commander Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander) and his wife Lady Lavinia (Natasha Wightman), and finally the movie star in the family Lord Rupert Standish (Laurence Fox). That there really only covers about half of the important characters in Gosford Park. Since almost everyone listed has a maid, butler, valet, or housekeeper (and in some instances multiple ones) we also have a large contingent of servants at the house. About the first two-thirds or more of the movie is devoted to enlighten the audience about these characters and informing them as to who all would have motives to kill the hated host Sir William. We also see (or knew going into the film from the advertising) that a Hollywood producer (Bob Balaban from Ghost World) is observing the proceedings for research on an upcoming murder mystery, while an actor friend of his (Ryan Phillippe of Cruel Intentions & 54) is also researching a role as a servant. From watching the interactions of the servants and the guests we learn a lot about each. Then Sir William is finally killed and the police are called in to investigate. It seams that just about everyone should be a suspect since most people at the house had something against the victim, but the incompetent Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry from A Civil Action) can’t seem to stop bungling things up and get to the bottom of the matter at hand. Meanwhile the Countess’ maid Mary Macreachran (Kelly Macdonald) is figuring everything out.

The rest of the cast includes Jeremy Northam, Trent Ford, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates, Emily Watson, Meg Wynn Owen, Clive Owen, Ron Webster, Eileen Atkins, Sarah Flind, and many, many more.

Gosford Park is a very interesting whodunit. However, I think spending that much time getting to the murder was a bit of a mistake, though many other movies kill far too early in a film. The cast is an all-star ensemble of Brits, and they did well with their roles. Also it is probably a good idea to catch-up on your British vocabulary so you can keep up with the dialogue. All-in-all I give Gosford Park a nice even eight on the About-Movies.com scale of ten.

Last updated: Saturday, October 28, 2006 05:37:37 PM

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