Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" should be required viewing for all film directors prior to working on their movies. It could be used in the same way that professional boxers go to Boxing Camp to get into shape before a fight. Altman demonstrates what a perfectly directed film looks like. Every scene in the film seems to have been staged to an incomprehensible level of absolute perfection. Not only do we have Altman's signature scenes full of characters doing bits of business with our focus being directed via levels of dialogue sound to particular spots on the screen, but also we have dozens of scenes that are mini-movies in themselves. Characters enter, say a line, do a bit of business, the perspective shifts seamlessly to reveal another bit of information and that character does their business and then turns and observes other characters talking and revealing more information. All of this is done through dialogue that is natural, often over-lapping and never over-written (although in this film several lines have a wonderful polished literalness to them). Every actor and nearly all the performances seem to be emanating from actors who have been working with this material and each other for several years. In reality the cast only had a few weeks worth of rehearsal and so the seamless manner in which the performances gel is due to the actors and the man in charge --Robert Altman. Altman is in charge of nearly every film that bears his name. His focus is usually on a different way to tell the story and it's always more concerned with character than with plot. Despite what may you have read or heard he's not very interested in anarchy or in being subversive, he just wants to make films that would interest him and often those are also films that would interest us. He is willing to try things, experiment and fail rather than to play it too safe or to not make an attempt to do something a little different than he perceives it's been done before.
"Gosford Park" takes place in November 1932 and is set on the luxurious English country estate belonging to Sir William McCordle (Michael Gamon). McCordle is a man who has made his money through ownership of boot factories and sweatshops. He has invited over a dozen aristocrats and their servants to his estate for a weekend Quail/Pheasant shooting party. Several of the guests owe their livelihoods to Sir William. Others have their own reasons or agendas for attending the gathering. I won't spoil the charms and discoveries of the film by revealing too much. It is best if you let the film reveal the characters, their relations to one another and how everyone relates to each other. Various motives will be revealed, but not always in the ways you expect. Pay close attention and be richly rewarded. I was not absolutely sure who was going to be murdered when I saw the film and since the murder doesn't occur until the film is nearly two-thirds over, it added an extra layer of enjoyment to the film. Enjoyment? Yes….after all, if a piano fell on the head of half of these characters it would be far from a tragic occurrence.
The tone of the film might have been described by a writer pitching a studio executive in Altman's The Player as a cross between Remains of the Day; Murder on the Orient Express, PBS's Upstairs Downstairs and Noel Coward's Private Lives (or lesser-known Hay Fever). Since you know it's a murder mystery, you're probably paying attention right from the start for various clues. You won't be disappointed for there's a lingering shot past some bottles of Poison foreshadowing what will undoubtedly occur. Remember, however this is an Altman film and the only thing you can count on is that when something familiar or cliché'd is introduced it is too be twisted and altered in an unfamiliar way. This is a particularly welcome development to be added to a genre as familiar as a 'cozy' English murder mystery. In deed it is the details and colorful characters that Altman is most interested in…and so are we.
Altman has assembled a rich cast of what most would consider English (and Australian/Irish/ actors). Bob Balaban and Ryan Phillipe are the exceptions and they are visitors from America. Dame Judith Dench snagged an Oscar for a brief but mesmerizing appearance in Shakespeare in Love a few years ago…. If there's any equality Maggie Smith who has a much more substantial and multi-faceted part in Gosford Park will pick up 10 Oscars for what she does. Yet that's criminally obvious because almost every member of this perfect cast shines. Smith gets the luck of the draw in playing one of the most verbal and most outwardly colorful of the characters. She does everything we expect and hope for her to do and then even a little more. It's a part that seems to have been created to make use of every single tic, inflection and look she is capable of offering. She seems to have an unfair advantage over everyone else because everything she does she is exactly what we want. She's shameless in the way she commands every scene, but she's absolutely perfect in what she does.
Alan Bates on the other hand is also giving us a wonderful performance with his Head butler Jennings but his character is one that's more comfortable blending into the woodwork as a devoted servant. Helen Mirren at one point beautifully states: "I'm the perfect servant, I have no life." Ah but everyone of course has a life. Some are quiet about them, some are secretive, and some are just learning or emulating the dance. I'm not going to detail any further the four or five in the cast who I believe stand-out because this is an ensemble piece that I encourage you to discover. Nearly everyone in the cast stands out for a scene or two but no one is hogging the scenery at the expense of someone else. Even though it might appear that is exactly what Stephen Frye is doing, he really isn't and his reigns are not loose enough to spoil the film --though Altman aficionados will perhaps defensively over-prepare for the possible derailment of the film (which never occurs).
The film is filled with a succession of moments and moments within larger scene moments. There are 30 significant speaking roles in the film and about 20 characters you'll want to pay attention to. No you don't actually have to memorize their names or everything about them and don't worry, the who and why done it explanations aren't difficult at all to comprehend or follow. The more observant will realize the perspective of the film is actually from one particular servant. You'll notice at least one servant is present in every scene of the film and another servant in particular is learning how to be both keenly observant and wisely discreet. At one point (toward the end) the film seems to switch suspects so quickly and completely you might feel a bit dizzy wondering if the obvious will be jettisoned in favor of the under-developed. I won't hint or tell however. It's Altman all the way. Even though the film feels drenched in it's period details and manners, Altman still introduces and uses Kristin Scott Thomas in much the manner he would have used Sally Kellerman 30 years ago. Directors, film buffs, writers and critics should all study how a film so rich in mannerisms and period detail can still contain the distinctive vision and signatures of its film maker, Altman.
Altman does not make any choices in this film you can truly say are 'bad' or 'wrong'. There is no strange idiosyncratic character that seems to have escaped from another film or universe that suddenly makes an appearance here. There's no non-actor standing out like a sore thumb amongst the ensemble, no strident use of nudity, and no 'drag' scene to point as a glaring flaw. Perhaps Stephen Fry as the Inspector is a bit too clown-ishly comic, and perhaps Bob Ballaban's American Film producer is an awkward fit (but then that's the point of course, American's always seem awkward and out of place don't they?). And we do get a couple of wonderful exchanges thanks to his inclusion in the film (which you'll have to discover for yourself).
Altman's one undeniable weakness has been his use of music in his films. I believe only Kansas City was made with its music known and set in stone prior to filming. Even if you justify what he is doing with music in particular films from McCabe and Mrs. Miller to Nashville to Short Cuts you can not excuse him for calling too much attention to some aspect of the music which upsets the balance or tone of the film. I could perhaps defend his use of Leonard Cohen in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but I can't defend how it changes the balance of the scene in an unnecessary artificial way. When Altman did get the music right--as in his Kansas City--he turned the film into a jazz concert and forgot to make us care about anything else. Altman 's use of music in Gosford Park is exactly as it should be. I won't spoil one of the films sequences by going into detail about it but let's just say that music is used in one scene to further accentuate additional differences between the upstairs and downstairs characters of the film. In other places in the film you never feel as if music is used in an appropriate or overly distracting fashion. Perhaps at 76, Altman finally has made his 'perfect' film.
So does the movie have something of timely importance to say? Not really. A film that insists upon saying something important and timely is also a film that quickly turns into something of diminishing value. You might consider it indispensable for a couple of years but then it fades. The heat of it message cools and you're left to discover how well the rest of the film has been made. If it's been made exceptionally well it becomes an important film of its day but never quite a timeless classic.
Gosford Park delivers a dozen and a half interesting characters and allows them to interact for more than two hours and fifteen minutes. I'll bet there are critics who have commented on how the murder, in this murder mystery film, comes so late it almost seems an unnecessary part of the film (I'll only read about this film and what others are saying after I've finished writing about it). Perhaps some will complain that Altman hardly seems to be all that interested in the murder. It's also possible there will be some in the audience who have almost forgotten the film is a murder mystery at about the time the murder occurs (bingo). Of course it is because of how utterly seamless and perfect the film is that murder feels like such a natural, too quiet moment in the film. To complain how seamless the film is also to complain that this film is not like other English murder mystery movies. Altman does not want to make movies that have already been made before. Here he has constructed a film built upon the intersection of several stories from different characters that meet at the point when the murder occurs. It's the details and getting to the murder that is the most interesting and telling part of the tale and so naturally it is where we spend most of our time. There have been and will always be murders. It's the characters, the people that matter. The entire film is not built entirely around one of two key sequences but instead resembles a beautifully choreographed dance. Altman has cast the dancers so well in their parts he can concentrate on being the choreographer and conductor. A conductor who fashions the numerous necessary notes into the components of a complicated story, which is told via movements forming a masterful symphony that, satisfies on several levels.
But. . . but . . . but. . . .Were all these characters really necessary to the story? Through subsequent viewings of the film I'm sure one will discover nuance's that will affirm the importance of every character. The less important characters certainly have less screen-time but they are part of a household of guest that are a part of each other's lives and who makeup the weekend shooting party gathering.
There is so much to talk about in terms of the choices the various actors have made and how an idea by Bob Ballaban and Altman was given to screenwriter Julian Fellowes who fleshed it all out in such a seemingly overly ambitious manner. I will be reading articles of how the casting was done and how much preparation, and rehearsal was done. I am curious as to how much ad-libbing survived into the film. Many of these characters in the film are undoubtedly based on people who actually existed and I'm curious if the identities are thinly disguised and discussed by those who know of such things. All of this of course is simply part of the fabric of this wonderful film. A film that is like finding a beautiful handcrafted Persian rug among a display of bathroom throw rugs and carpet tiles. It simply doesn't seem possible that Altman could make this kind of a film at this point in time. After all murder mysteries are usually all about plot and plot points and Altman has never had much interest in such confining and over-worn things as those-- His film noir is The Long Goodbye, his musicals Nashville and Kansas City, his political take is Tanner '88, his romantic comedy is Dr. T and the Women, his western is McCabe and Mrs. Miller, his war film satire is Mash and now his English Murder Mystery is Gosford Park--in several ways the best of them all.
GOSFORD PARK
A great cast bears repeating :
Cast: Eileen Atkins (Mrs. Croft), Bob Balaban (Morris Weissman), Alan Bates (Jennings), Charles Dance (Raymond, Lord Stockbridge), Stephen Fry (Inspector Thompson), Michael Gambon (Sir William McCordle), Richard E. Grant (George), Tom Hollander (Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Meredith), Derek Jacobi (Probert), Kelly Macdonald (Mary Maceachran), Helen Mirren (Mrs. Wilson), Jeremy Northam (Ivor Novello), Clive Owen (Robert Parks), Ryan Phillippe (Henry Denton), Camilla Rutherford (Isobel McCordle), Maggie Smith (Constance, Countess of Trentham), Geraldine Somerville (Louisa, Lady Stockbridge), Kristin Scott Thomas (Lady Sylvia McCordle), Sophie Thompson (Dorothy), Emily Watson (Elsie) and James Wilby (The Hon. Freddie Nesbitt).
Directed by Robert Altman; written by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and Bob Balaban; director of photography, Andrew Dunn; edited by Tim Squyres; music by Patrick Doyle; production designer, Stephen Altman; produced by Altman, Balaban, and David Levy; released by USA Films. Running time: 137 minutes. Rated R (There's very little reason for the R rating but children would likely be bored by it.).
Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller. For more information visit the web site at:
http://www.radiofreegallery.com/jarmicknholder.htm * * * * * *
Original portions of this review Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2001. The above
work is protected by international copyright law
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