A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: Gosford Park

Date Viewed: 1/5/02

Details:

Michael Gambon

Kristin Scott Thomas

Maggie Smith

Jeremy Northam

Derek Jacobi

Emily Watson

Kelly Macdonald

(plus a total of over 40 credited, separable and distinct roles on-screen; seemingly a cast of thousands)

Director: Robert Altman

Score: 0

The Review: Slow, very slow, not nearly ponderous or funereal, but very slow; quite boringly slow throughout the first 4/5 of its seemingly interminable length. The only reason it deserves even a fraction of positive interest comes from the last 20 minutes, but getting there is an almost insufferable wait. By careful editing, the trailers would have you believe this has the wit and drive of an Oscar Wilde play; actually, the trailer has excised all of the good dialog into about 20 seconds, and is very misleading.

Period piece, 1932, set in a British country estate, a gathering of relations, friends, spouses and acquaintances for a weekend of parties, shooting, gossip, and murder. Costuming and air is well-set, but you really have to want to watch the blatherings of the upstairs folk, and need to sympathize with the plight of the downstairs folk. As a matter of fact, a steady diet of Upstairs, Downstairs during one's formative years might indeed be a prerequisite for enjoying (and perhaps even understanding) this tedious drama. The introductory scenes where the guests arrive at the estate are incredibly confusing, and if you are lucky, you may finally figure out who most of the characters are by the end; just maybe. I gave up early on, and just went with the flow -- and surprisingly, some of the faces and relationships eventually seemed to make some degree of sense. This might imply that, to understand the various plot lines and interpersonal relationships -- a very dense soup -- it would be best to view the movie at least twice. But (as a great film critic once said) that is asking too much.

The poor sound and swallowed articulation at times makes the dialog impossible to decipher; this happens so often it seems intentional, as if the words are only to be incidental to the mood. Self-referential, considering that one of the guests is a California movie producer deciding to make a murder mystery (albeit Charlie Chan) set in the English countryside, wanting to visit to breathe in "the color"; he seems to be on the phone to the "coast," interminably.

Looking back at a list of Altman-directed films, it seems that I have chosen to watch only a very few of them (e.g., The Player, which I liked; Ready to Wear, which was mediocre; and Cookie's Fortune, which though slow, was quirky and amusing; none were costume dramas). Use this ignorance to help whether you should believe me or not.

Back to the chronological list of reviews