In Short, Gosford Park was a big let down.
Especially after seeing the Oscar nods, I became excited to learn more about this "Clue" type movie that promises mystery and intrigue. Sadly, both mystery and intrigue were completely overshadowed by the indeciferable dialogue and upwards of 15 main characters.
To me, that is were the movie fell apart, about 10 minutes into it, I had such a hard time trying to understand what the actors were saying, that it became more of a guessing game to learn about the characters. Although the movie was set in the 1930's, I expected them to have filmed it in 2000, so at least we could hear and understand what was going on. About 15% of the dialogue came through clear, yet it certainly wasn't enough to tease me to remain interested.
Once the dreadfully slow stage was set, the characters didn't stop coming. They kept introducing new characters, both of upper class and servants, and with the poor sound quality, it was a blessing to learn more than the characters name, very few of which were interesting enough to follow. I understand, that with a murder mystery set in a "And Then There Were None" atmosphere, the director wanted to keep everyone guessing who committed the crime, it soon became a waste to even bother, as I couldn't make any connection with them. I was almost glad when about 1 hour and a half into the nearly 3 hour movie one character died, at least that way, there was one less person to keep track of.
On top of all of this supposed mystery and suspense, there was the back plot that a California film director was staying at the house, researching a movie based on a murder mystery dinner (exactly what was happening at the home where he was staying). This premise had some great promise, but it fell short when his character was all but removed from the script and he soon became a background noise maker, yelling at his people over the telephone.
I see why the director was nominated for an Oscar, as he must have had his hands full keeping track of all the characters and organizing a "mystery" dinner.
Recommended:
