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Monday, October 24, 2011

Gosford Park (2001)



Synopsis: It’s like Upstairs Downstairs...with profanities...and murder!

Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “As a hunting party gathers at the country estate, no one is aware that before the weekend is over, someone will be murdered – twice! The police are baffled but the all-seeing, all-hearing servants know that almost everyone had a motive.”

What Did I Learn?: Those old English country estates were filled to the rafters with servants and guests enjoying illicit sex...and marmalade!

You Might Like This Movie If: You always believed Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery novels should have provided a searing social critique of inter-war England.  

Really?: If I stab somebody who’s already dead, can I really get off scot-free? Wouldn’t there at least be an attempted murder charge, or something like that?

Rating: Gosford Park is a good film with many excellent performances, but I really think Robert Altman missed the mark. For starters, THERE. ARE. TOO. MANY. CHARACTERS. On a dramatic level, many of them are never fully fleshed-out, and it’s impossible for one’s left brain to keep track of who’s who; I was forced to take the movie in as a visual spectacle, rather than being able to follow the complete plot. Instead of creating a satisfying whodunit, Altman made a sprawling, dramatic look at the changing 1930s British class system with a murder about mid-way through, and a tacked-on performance by Stephen Fry as a bumbling detective. 6.5/10 stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707/


2 comments:

  1. ["Instead of creating a satisfying whodunit, Altman made a sprawling, dramatic look at the changing 1930s British class system with a murder about mid-way through, and a tacked-on performance by Stephen Fry as a bumbling detective."]


    That's why the film worked for me. The murder mystery is merely used as a device to reveal the changing (and not so changing) British class system between the two world wars. The appeal of "GOSFORD PARK" was not the murder mystery. The appeal of it - at least for me - was the examining of class in Britain. Even the relationship between the bumbling police detective Stephen Fry and his more competent subordinate contributes to this examination.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Rush Blog:

      First of all, thank you for reading my blog, and for taking the time to leave a comment. I must say you have a pretty impressive blog, yourself.

      As it happens, Gosford Park was probably my most controversial review. A number of people have told me they disagreed with my rating, and that's ok. Schuster at the Movies isn't meant to be taken all that seriously (I adopt a bit of a snarky tone even with films I quite enjoy), and the ratings are simply my opinions, not the Gospel truth.

      Gosford Park wasn't a terrible film, and I get why many people enjoyed it. I still believe, however, that GP was populated by far too many characters, and that it missed the mark by using the murder mystery merely as a device, as you aptly put it.

      Let me ask: what did you think of The Name of the Rose? I thought it did a wonderful job of illustrating the world of the Medieval church without ever forgetting it was a murder mystery, first and foremost.

      EES

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