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Robert Altman is famous for putting together an ensemble cast and directing them so that each person shines.  In Gosford Park, he has assembled the cream of contemporary actors, given them Julian Fellowes script and turned them loose in an elegant English country manor.  Fellowes is a relative newcomer to scriptwriting and his previous work was a television adaptation of Little Lord Faultleroy for British television.  Here, he shines with dialogue so witty and catty it crystallizes the air around it.

The premise of Gosford Park is a weekend hunting party. Sir Michael Gambon and Kristin Scott Thomas play the hosts.  This is really upper crust stuff and as people arrive, the visitors and staff are assessing each other as to rank.  The camera work by Andrew Dunn seamlessly takes the audiences from floor to floor and room to room.  You can see what is going on in the kitchen as well as living rooms and smoking rooms.  Thus, we know the story of who is sleeping with who, who hopes to gain from this weekend and who doesn't want to lose, who is clinging to shreds of wealth and who never has to worry about anything.  As the weekend progresses, the gentlemen hunt and the ladies play cards or fuss with their maids about clothes.  When a  murder occurs and the police are called, Scott Thomas takes over with such command that even the inspector (Alan Bates) is cowed. And how does one solve a case in which the aristocracy and their help are a united front?

Even though the cast works as an ensemble, there are standout performances.  One is Maggie Smith as Gambon's sister.  Jeremy Northam plays Ivor Novello, a famous musician of the time.  Northam does his own singing and piano work here and it is quite good.  Kelly McDonald is Smith's maid who takes demure to pristine levels. Kristin Scott Thomas, who was too icy as a mother in My Life As a House, uses that to advantage here as the mistress of the manor. Helen Mirren is the housekeeper who doesn't let emotion get in the way of doing her job. Bob Balaban plays a producer of Charlie Chan mysteries who is always thinking of new ways to continue the series as a poke at Hollywood. The two performances that don't quite match the rest are Ryan Philippe as a would-be actor and Camilla Rutherford.  His boyish enthusiasm is out of place as is her over-acting.

Gosford Park may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it has enough romantic situations, intrigue and top-notch acting for most.  Maggie Smith's droll quips are acid off the lips of daffodils.  Director Robert Altman has done it again.

Copyright 2002 Marie Asner   1/6/2002

Most critic organizations have chosen either David Lynch's Mulholland Drive or Robert Altman's Gosford Park for Best of Year honors, choices that I both disagree with and don't understand. I actively dislike Mulholland Drive, though part of that is my natural aversion to Lynch's obsessions. Gosford Park is a different matter, altogether-a film I actually enjoy but one whose flaws feel obvious and whose strengths are hardly award-worthy.

Robert Altman has had a long and varied career. He burst onto the scene with M*A*S*H in 1970 and continued with two of that decade's most important works: the revisionist western McCabe and Mrs. Miller and the ensemble drama Nashville. The '80s weren't kind to Altman, but he made a triumphant return in the early '90s with The Player and Short Cuts. Since then, his movies have had varied success, but their one constant has been Altman's trademark large cast.

Gosford Park continues that tradition and takes it to a new level with thirty characters. I'm not talking about extras or cameos but thirty legitimate and interesting figures, all developed in one 140-minute film. In almost any other director's hands, that would be a disaster, but Altman handles his cast with aplomb.

The action takes place at an English estate in November 1932. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) have invited family and friends to a shooting party. The film's opening sequence shows all of the principles arriving with varying degrees of enthusiasm. There's Sylvia's two sisters Lady Stockbridge and Lady Meredith (Geraldine Somerville and Natasha Wightman) and their husbands Raymond and Anthony (Charles Dance and Tom Hollander), her aunt Constance (Maggie Smith), a couple named Freddie and Mabel who aren't quite as wealthy as the others (James Wilby and Claudie Blakley), a famous actor and an American movie producer (Jeremy Northam and Bob Balaban), and two young men who have designs on Sylvia's beautiful daughter Isobel (Laurence Fox and Trent Ford, the daughter played by Camilla Rutherford).

Obviously, that's only half the full complement of thirty. The other half are the servants, both the ones who live at the estate--the butler Jennings (Alan Bates), the housekeeper Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren), the cook Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins), McCordle's valet Probert (Derek Jacobi), and various maids and footmen including one played by Emily Watson--and those who are servants of the visitors including Mary (Kelly MacDonald), Robert (Clive Owen), and Henry (Ryan Phillippe). You don't have to be exceedingly
familiar with British actors to realize that Altman has assembled an absolutely top-notch cast.

The film's studio actually sent out a flyer to all of the press before the screening, explaining who each of the characters are and how they're related. But Altman is so assured in his direction that that help was unnecessary. Within the movie's first 30 minutes, I not only knew who each person was and how they were related but I could anticipate how they would react as the plot's various romantic and financial intrigues developed.

It doesn't hurt that the actors are in top form. Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) is wonderfully sophisticated as the lady of the manor, while Gambon (Sleepy Hollow) is fantastic as a self-absorbed lord. Jeremy Northam (An Ideal Husband) has the opportunity to show off his singing voice in one of the film's most lovely sequences, and Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) is hilarious as she casts off withering asides. In fact, the entire cast is brilliant (with the possible exception of Emily Watson, who seems like she belongs in a different movie). Special mention should be made of Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting) as a naive servant, who becomes the film's moral center.

The film's first 90 minutes is a real joy, as the audience gets to watch a first-rate director working fluidly with first-rate actors. The contrast between the "above-stairs" elite and their "below-stairs" servants is nicely handled, emphasizing the class issues without becoming didactic. And the relationships are all intriguing, as you slowly find out more about each character--what their hopes and dreams are, what secrets they hide underneath (or in) their bed.

Then, somewhere past the movie's half-way point, a main character is murdered (I'm not spoiling anything here; this is actually part of the film's marketing). I distinctly remember sitting in the theater and looking
forward to how Altman would handle the whodunit and, more importantly, how this would affect the characters' relationships. Unfortunately, the film botches the opportunity.

The whodunit quickly becomes a moot point, as the suspects are narrowed down to two men, one of whom doesn't care that he's a suspect and one of whom doesn't fit the part. This is extremely disappointing, as the element of mystery is quashed before it has a chance to flower. Furthermore, the police investigation (headed by inspectors played by Stephen Fry and Ron Webster) is a rather boring affair that only exposes one of the investigators as a twit. Worse, this event that should act as a catalyst to the various ongoing schemes is merely a distraction.

The film also suffers from its obvious comparisons to one of the truly great films of the 20th century, Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game. Whereas that film used its intricate character studies to examine the nature of the human condition, I get the feeling from Gosford Park that Altman just wants to see how many actors he can juggle. His juggling is very good, mind you, but I'm not sure what the point is. My friend Garth muttered something about the "Cinema of Quality" as he left the screening room, and I have to agree. Beautiful people in beautiful costumes in a beautiful setting with beautiful tracking shots is pleasant to look at, but it seems empty after a while.   

J. Robert Parks 1/10/2002