Directed by Robert Altman
Starring Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emily Watson
I can enjoy films of any genre. That much has been established 29 films deep into the project. I'm a horror fan first and foremost, but I'm also keen on dramas, comedies (back when they were legal), action films (back when they were coherent)...hell, even romances, as established by the previous film In the Mood for Love. If it has a solid structure, satisfying character arcs and hooks me emotionally, I'm in regardless of what a film set out to accomplish. Regardless of the genre, however, one type of film has always been a tough sell for me: large cast ensemble pieces.
Gosford Park was directed by Robert Altman, a man who specialized in films with abnormally large casts of characters. I've seen a decent number of his greatest hits, and the majority of them share a few common themes. From M*A*S*H to McCabe & Mrs. Miller to Nashville to even Popeye, the Altman method of making a film is to take a script, casually toss it aside, throw everything up to his actors when it comes to characterization and build a community. As a result, his films are extremely unconventional and at times even sloppy, but he has a great gift when it comes to creating film characters that stick with you after the ending credits. Gosford Park is Altman to the letter, with the central plot point of two distinct large groups of characters under one roof and a murder mystery. As per usual, there is no clear-cut plot beats or traditional character development. We're thrown in as mere observers, for better or worse.
The setup for Gosford Park is simple. We are placed in early 1930s England where a group of aristocratic people are gathering at the home of William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) for a shooting excursion. The execution of that setup is where the movie becomes an extremely complex, layered tale, with a massive collection of rich folks arriving at the home. It does me little to no good to list all of their names; I'm not going to go so far as to say that they are interchangeable, but there is a remarkable samey quality to the endless parade of Countesses, Lords and Ladys that populate the film. The movie saves its deeper traits for the army of servants that the stuffy people bring with them, a number just as big as the first group who are quartered downstairs and not allowed to cross the barrier into the sacred tabernacle of upstairs where their masters sleep.
The movie subverted my expectations with just how LONG it takes to build to the actual murder of William McCordle. It occurs more than halfway into the film's 137-minute running time, after we have been given a few possible motivations from people who might want McCordle dead. There is Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander), who finds himself financially ruined when William withdraws from a business deal. There is Rupert Standish (Laurence "Based" Fox), boyfriend of the McCordle's certifiably hot daughter (Camilla Rutherford) who is worried that he may not meet the family's stiff standards for a son-in-law. The other man who stood out to be as a possible suspect to me was Robert Parks (Clive Owen), the films' resident rebel without a cause who has an attitude and a certain moral code. Since he is also played by the most famous person in the cast at the time this movie was released, that also counts for some points in the killer pool.
Once the mysterious figure has knifed McCordle, the movie becomes a bit more streamlined. If there is one type of character that the British love, it's bumbling detectives, and Stephen Fry plays a great one here. For my money, the best scene in the entire film is the introduction of this character, where Sylvia introduces all of the guests to the detective and interrupts him every time he tries to speak. It's one of those little things that is hard to pick up on, but if you do, it spells out the entire meaning of the film better than any dialogue ever can. Show, don't tell. Great stuff. The investigators uncover that McCordle was actually murdered twice, as it were, being initially poisoned before we see a mysterious figure essentially stab a corpse.
All of the fun in a movie like this isn't actually in the identities of the killer (or killers, in the case of this film). It's in the journey to get there, and Gosford Park is a movie that gets stronger as it goes along. The final 45 minutes concern the economics of the death, with Meredith finding himself ironically saved by the death of his rival and the various plays that are made on Isobel for her inheritance - or lack thereof. There is a pair of effective scenes as Mary (Kelly Macdonald) deduces the entire plot all by herself. While there are always things going on in the background, this character is really the centerpiece of the film. She is the Winston Zeddemore of Gosford Park, the everyperson who takes the audience along for the ride and spells things out.
I'll admit that I spent the early portions of this film desperately trying to think of other things to do. The group of characters is so large that I gave up very quickly on trying to learn all of their names, their occupations, who was a servant of who and the sexual underpinnings of some of the relationships. Boredom was creeping in mightily quick, and I already had my synonyms for that word holstered as that description is one that I have virulently tried to avoid using throughout the 30 Flicks. The narrative was giving me no central protagonist, no hook to bite into as it were.
That changed as soon as the murder took place. Altman did something very uncharacteristic for him and calmed down. The constant background conversations muddling the dialogue scenes were dialed back, and I was able to be drawn into this story of class difference and long-standing vengeance. The film does have likable charcters, first and foremost among them being Mary and Robert. They are very much a yin-yang duo, two of the people who live below the stairs and have very different outlooks on the people above them. One is an observer, the other has a very personal stake. Saying that alone is probably a spoiler, so I apologize, but it's how the film reaches its conclusions about humanity rather than what actions of humanity are presented.
Rating time: *** out of ****. Gosford Park starts slow, but give it time and this will be a rewarding watch. I also wanted to post a video of Ryan Phillippe's horrendous Scottish accent but couldn't find one, so here's Kelly Macdonald and the man who should be hosting The Late Show right now being very, very Scottish:
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