This is a good movie - for 30 minutes. And these moments do not make up a compact 30 minute segment. No, they are a few moments here and there (only about 5 of which last for more than a minute) spread out throughout the entire film. The remaining 2 hours and 10 minutes are waste, where we get snippets of several characters who are slightly interacting together, developing aborted plots and character semi-portraits. About a third of these characters are speaking in soft voices with thick common accents and low vocalization, making their snippets of dialogue even more pointless to the untrained ear. They might as well have included static to replace those moments, because there's nothing interesting to look at either (regardless of the costume and set design Oscar nominations, which are merely for the ability to recreate the look of an English mansion falling into decadence in the 1930s, not because any of it is eye candy; filler nominations, if you ask me).
Despite the crowding of characters and Altman's alleged legendary abilities to weave many stories and characters together and explore them fully, there's only about 6 to 8 characters that we really get to know about (and for half of those, most of their information is revealed in the last-minute exposition at the conclusion of the film). And unfortunately, only three characters are regularly entertaining: a rich socialite grouch (played by Maggie Smith), a nobleman who dreams of being an entertainer yet is met with flops, and a police inspector's smarter assistant. Unfortunately, the latter two are left to a side. Thus, it's up to Maggie Smith and her character (Constance) to carry the movie for us. After a while, you share her grouchiness towards the fellow socialites. Smith's nomination is deserved, although it is odd that she's in the supporting actress category, when her name is top billed in the credits, not to mention the movie opens and closes with her. I guess the lead actress is considered to be Emily Watson, who plays Constance's servant, Elsie, a character who serves as a vehicle to connect the other many characters, although Elsie's emotional gamut is limited, and some of her decisions are inexplicable. Helen Mirren is also top billed, although she's in the background during the entire picture, except for the last 10 minutes, when at last she gets a chance to show off her marvelous acting talents and tells us something about her character.
Supposedly, "Gosford Park" is a murder mystery spoof. Actually, that plot line does not develop until 1 hour and 20 minutes into the film. In other words, there's practically an entire standard movie before the advertised plot develops. The rest is a look at the different interaction between social groups in old Britain. If you've seen ANY other movie about the British elite and their servants, then you've seen and know everything this movie has to offer on that topic. And it isn't an entertaining take on the division (don't expect any humorous "Tom Jones"-like direction here). The screenplay offers some amusing lines here and there, but most of it is bickering, or random lines spouted by obnoxious characters, like Bob Balaban's gay filmmaker of Charlie Chan flicks - geez, can't Altman make a movie without lamely attacking Hollywood's elite? "The Player" is 10 years old, and wasn't that great to start with.
To round out "Gosford"'s problems, Robert Altman directs this in a limp, standard, hardly caring manner, with even some amateurish moments (e.g. overly dramatic music bursts out when a servant is informed that her hard work of the previous night was meaningless). He does have the occasional interesting shot, but those are quite few. His Oscar nomination just shows the influence of Hollywood politics on these awards ("let's give him an Oscar before he kicks the bucket" - Altman is 77 years old and Oscarless to this date). Heck, the only deserving nominations are for the actresses. It's troublesome that the wittiest writing of the movie is featured in the its poster, yet it has a best original screenplay nod.
The best thing I can say is: hey, at least it isn't "H.E.A.L.T.H."! But it sure does not deserve any of your attention.
Despite the crowding of characters and Altman's alleged legendary abilities to weave many stories and characters together and explore them fully, there's only about 6 to 8 characters that we really get to know about (and for half of those, most of their information is revealed in the last-minute exposition at the conclusion of the film). And unfortunately, only three characters are regularly entertaining: a rich socialite grouch (played by Maggie Smith), a nobleman who dreams of being an entertainer yet is met with flops, and a police inspector's smarter assistant. Unfortunately, the latter two are left to a side. Thus, it's up to Maggie Smith and her character (Constance) to carry the movie for us. After a while, you share her grouchiness towards the fellow socialites. Smith's nomination is deserved, although it is odd that she's in the supporting actress category, when her name is top billed in the credits, not to mention the movie opens and closes with her. I guess the lead actress is considered to be Emily Watson, who plays Constance's servant, Elsie, a character who serves as a vehicle to connect the other many characters, although Elsie's emotional gamut is limited, and some of her decisions are inexplicable. Helen Mirren is also top billed, although she's in the background during the entire picture, except for the last 10 minutes, when at last she gets a chance to show off her marvelous acting talents and tells us something about her character.
Supposedly, "Gosford Park" is a murder mystery spoof. Actually, that plot line does not develop until 1 hour and 20 minutes into the film. In other words, there's practically an entire standard movie before the advertised plot develops. The rest is a look at the different interaction between social groups in old Britain. If you've seen ANY other movie about the British elite and their servants, then you've seen and know everything this movie has to offer on that topic. And it isn't an entertaining take on the division (don't expect any humorous "Tom Jones"-like direction here). The screenplay offers some amusing lines here and there, but most of it is bickering, or random lines spouted by obnoxious characters, like Bob Balaban's gay filmmaker of Charlie Chan flicks - geez, can't Altman make a movie without lamely attacking Hollywood's elite? "The Player" is 10 years old, and wasn't that great to start with.
To round out "Gosford"'s problems, Robert Altman directs this in a limp, standard, hardly caring manner, with even some amateurish moments (e.g. overly dramatic music bursts out when a servant is informed that her hard work of the previous night was meaningless). He does have the occasional interesting shot, but those are quite few. His Oscar nomination just shows the influence of Hollywood politics on these awards ("let's give him an Oscar before he kicks the bucket" - Altman is 77 years old and Oscarless to this date). Heck, the only deserving nominations are for the actresses. It's troublesome that the wittiest writing of the movie is featured in the its poster, yet it has a best original screenplay nod.
The best thing I can say is: hey, at least it isn't "H.E.A.L.T.H."! But it sure does not deserve any of your attention.
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