Rating: 
Summary: Gosford Park: Slow, boring
Review: I just rented Gosford Park looking for a "character movie" (something like "State and Main" or "Best in Show"). Unfortunately, Gosford Park doesn't deliver in this category, or any category for that matter. I'll spare the plot summaries (you can read that in other reviews) and cut to the pros and cons.Pros:
- The acting is quite good. The main characters did a great job portraying both high society and life as the servants. - To complement the acting, the sets and costumes are terrific. The old mansion and surrounding areas are represented well, leaving the viewer feeling very immersed in the 1930's era. Cons:
- The story really drags most of the time. There are a lot of characters, and the movie take time to try and build up a motive for each one. However, this results in a lot of slow, uninteresting moments. Additionally, I felt that too many characters were focused on. The end result is confusion, and I spent a lot of time trying to tell characters apart. This is not good, as I think we, as viewers, were supposed be intrigued by the possible suspects and be startled by the ending (obviously didn't happen for me). - The character development wasn't helped at all by the awful sound. As mentioned in other reviews, it is VERY hard to hear what the characters are saying. Although I like the *idea* of the viewer sort of drifting from conversation to conversation, it was not well executed in this movie. Instead I spent most of the time trying to make out anything intelligible from the jumble of phrases being thrown at our ears. There are plenty of other things I could drivel about, but I think (a) a boring, slow plot and (b) unintelligible voices should be enough to convey my general disliking of the movie. We didn't play with the DVD itself much itself. The previews included on the DVD were very old (I don't remember the specific movies), but I don't care much for previews, so that didn't bother me. One odd thing occurred when we first tried "Play Movie." The movie started, but without sound. We had to use the scene selector and go to the first scene to get any sound (although I'm sure this is only a problem because we had a rental DVD). The bottom line: I really can't think of any reason to see this movie, let alone own the DVD. The plot is slow and the characters indistinguishable.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointed Altman fan
Review: Well, Altman is one of my favorite directors. I've enjoyed the big hits(Mash, The Player, Nashville) as well as the little ones (Streamers, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 3 Women). When I saw all the praise I was expecting an excellent film, this isn't it.
First of all, there's the dreaded patented Altman sound mix that has worked well elsewhere (especially in Mash where it accentuated the sense of chaos), that is a disaster here. Trying to make out what these folks are saying just gets in the way of enjoying and understanding the film. The movie is overly long, it takes too long to get to the murder, I didn't care about the guy who died, and I didn't get that longing to figure out who killed him (this kills the who-done-it). The interwoven character studies that works so well in Nashville and Short-cuts doesn't work here as it simply meant there were more characters I really didn't care about. Beautifully filmed? yes! That's the only reason I can even give it 3 stars. I had heard how this film takes you beneath the surface of intricate relationships between characters (something Altman can do quite well). Ok, this person is sleeping with this person, and that guy doesn't love his wife, and this lady really runs the show, etc.,... The problem is the film builds no real feelings for any of them. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: I have no idea what happened
Review: Gosford Park seemed like the type of movie that I would really enjoy. A murder mystery set in the 1930's. Kind of like Clue but with a bigger budget and less comedy. Unfortunately, I found myself falling asleep because I had no clue what was going on. I honestly know no more about the movie now than I did before I watched it. If you were to ask me what the movie was about, I would say some people came to a big house, someone was murdered, the people left. And you do not have to worry about me spoiling the ending because I do not know who the killer was. I understood that several characters had motives, but I did not understand why. I am not sure if the murderer was revealed or if he or she was not intended to be revealed. Here were my main difficulties with the movie. First, most of the characters had thick British accents and the sound was not done well at all. There was always too much background noise. Therefore, even if I could hear the dialogue, I could not understand it. Second, there were too many characters and the movie kept jumping from one to another very quickly, so I had no idea who was who and how they were related to the other characters. These difficulties left me watching the end credits rolling with disbelief. The movie just seemed to end, leaving no closure. I can only assume that this is the type of movie that you need to watch at least a couple of times in order to completely understand it. I rented this movie so I really do not have much motivation to spend the time or the money to watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: Something missing
Review: Many bad SF movies have been made with great battles, ships exploding, and special effects. Many bad cops & robbers movies with nice chases and gunfights have been made. "Gosford Park" has some very nice stuff too. It has perfect acting and directing. It has an exquisite mansion. It shows a society with precise rules where everyone knows just exactly what to do for every occasion. There is some good good interaction between characters. There is beautiful music.
*******
So what's the problem???
*******
1. There is no plot or story.
2. There are too many characters and no reason to care about any of them.
3. This movie wanders aimlessly from one conversation to another.
4. Half way throuh the movie one realises that not only has nothing happened, but there isn't any setup for anything to happen. Finally someone kicks the bucket but that can't even get things going. There is no point to this movie.
5. There is no plot or story.
**********
The soundtrack looks promising.
Rating:
Summary: A great movie if you have insomnia...
Review: Altman has always been the master of large ensemble casts. Nashville, for instance, will always be a classic. But with Gosford Park he's jumped a few years back and across the pond to Depression-era England and it's just too much of a stretch for him. There are too many characters and telling them apart, at least to this Yank, gets to be a chore. The only fun character is Weissman, the Jewish film producer/director of Charlie Chan movies. In many ways, this whodunit is like those old Charlie Chan classics, but at least they had distinctive characters (who, yes, were stereotyped too often) and you knew who was whom. Keep track of who's doing what with whom and when and why becomes such a chore that this potentially entertaining movie ultimately becomes a bore. I suppose if I watched it a second time, I would have a better sense of who's who, but I'm not wasting a couple of hours of my life watching this again. I have better things to do, like rake the Arizona dust in my back yard...
Rating:
Summary: Oh Dear...
Review: This is normally the kind of film that I really enjoy. I read all the positive reviews from the critics, and so when it came out on DVD, I rushed out to buy it. I really wanted to like this film, but I can't even believe that the reviewers who gave this film a postive review and I even saw the same film. First, and most damaging, was the sound mix on this film. The dialogue was so unintelligable and muddled that I had to turn on the closed captioning just to understand the dialogue. There was so much background noise interfering with the dialogue, and so much dialogue that overlapped with other dialogue, I couldn't understand a word that was being said. At the beginning, I kept turning up the volume on the tv because I thought it was my sense of hearing. It wasn't until the tv volume was almost all the way up that I realized that it was the film, not my hearing. By that time, I'd missed a huge portion of the dialogue that set up various critical character interactions and plot points, and I didn't even care enough to go back and re-view it to see what I'd missed. It was horrible! Secondly, the characters were so flat and indistinguishable that I still don't know who was who, or even the character's names! If I spend 2 hours with a set of movie characters, I'd at least like to know who they are by the end of the film, and why they're doing what they're doing. Still have no clue who most of the characters were, or why I should care about them. Some of the actors were fabulous, but expecting Maggie Smith, Jeremy Northam, and Emily Watson to carry a film of this length and complication by themselves is ludicrous. Ryan Phillipe's acting was horrible and Derek Jacobi was utterly wasted. I plan to sell this DVD as soon as I can, and clear some room in my DVD rack for a better film.
Rating: 
Summary: AN UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS WHODUNIT...
Review: Directed by Robert Altman, this film take place in the English country side of the 1930s at the lavish and beautiful estate known as Gosford Park. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife, Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) host a large, weekend hunting party for a distinguished assemblage of guests, who arrive accompanied by their downstairs entourage. It soon becomes clear that the film revolves around a hodge podge of subplots and intrigues, both upstairs and downstairs, some of which are quite interesting, others seemingly less so. They all become pertinent, however, when one of them is murdered by someone in their midst. The film plays as if it were a more upscale and lavish version of the PBS series "Mystery" or as a film based upon an Agatha Christie mystery. The cast is stellar with excellent performances by all. Maggie Smith is outstanding in the role of Constance Trentham, a snobby, self-absorbed, old biddy in need of money, so that she can continue the lifestyle to which she is accustomed. Jeremy Northam is wonderful playing matinee idol, Ivor Novello, and continues to extend his range, as this role requires him to sing, which he does quite credibly, in fact. Helen Mirren and Eileen Atkins are superlative as the housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, and the cook, Mrs. Croft, who are, apparently, at war with each other. Richard E, Grant, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson, and Kelly MacDonald are wonderful as part of the core of downstairs folks through whose eyes the viewer see events unfold. Stephen Fry deserves mention for his brief, though memorable, turn as the laid back Inspector Thompson, whose bumbling investigative efforts seem almost sure to leave the murder unsolved. The audience, however, knows who did it by film's end, even though Inspector Thompson appears not to have a clue. The cinematography is beautiful, as it captures the sumpuousness and richness of the upstairs life in the manor home. It also captures the bleakness and confinement of downstairs life, as well, serving to further underline the great divide that exists between the two. The gulf is further delineated by one of the subplots, which sees the character played by Ryan Phillippe gamely straddle both worlds. The one small problem I found with the film is that, because there are so many characters with their own subplots and intrigues, the film is somewhat confusing at times. Moreover, some of the dialogue is occasionally unintelligible and garbled, due to overlapping dialogue, which was a bit annoying. Watching the DVD with the English subtitles feature on, however, would probably resolve this issue. The DVD offers a number of interesting features, including an enjoyable mini- ducumentary of Altman's efforts to ensure authenticity of period detail. They apparently hired a cook, a butler, and a maid who were in service during the early nineteen thirties as a sort of sounding board as to how things were done. It also features two commentaries, as well as a short on the making of Gosford Park. It is a value packed DVD and well worth the money. Viewers who like period pieces and mysteries will especially enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Godforsaken park
Review: They told me this was, as well as an historical ambience movie, a "mistery" movie. The real mistery is what was the point of the whole charade. All you hear is a mass of bored and boring aristocrats chattering, bickering and whining, and servants chattering mumbling and complaining. One of the older personae, an overbearing and cantankerous baron (or something...) is so well loved that almost everyone tries to kill him, till one of the bunch of sons,cousins,wives, aunts,and butlers,maids,chamber boys et coetera succeeds. I couldn't care less which one, and so,apparently, did a lazy detective who not so much investigated than chattered and socialized. At some moment,everyone of the figurants (I won't call them characters) got home,and so, whit relief,did I.
Rating: 
Summary: Bitingly Funny
Review: Robert Altman still has life in him yet--Gosford Park, his lastest movie-party, is the best thing he's done in many years. The film is set in an enormous English mansion on a rainy November weekend in 1932; a slew of Brits arrive for a shooting party, dragging with them all of their servants, and by the time they traipse back out a murder has been committed. Altman divides the action between the wealthy guests "above stairs" and the crew of servants below--the result is largely comical, and Altman is right to see it all as one big circus, despite the adultery and the murder and the secrets. Altman's genius, here as in his best films, has always been working the room to catch the silliness, the great stupid irony of it all. The assembly of characters are delightful caricatures, and they provide the film with rich, savory details. The film is lighter than air, but we're thinking all the time. It's a delightful rush, and I smiled all the way through it.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but unsurprising
Review: Period pieces are not everybody's thing. I know grown men who would gladly eat glass rather than sit through one. And really, can you blame them? Costume dramas are almost always boringly similar. People wear fancy clothes, sip tea, become attracted to people they shouldn't become attracted to, and say things like, "I love Lord Fibberbush, but he's not of my class! Oh, the pain!". If you're a historian, it's usually fun. If you're a normal person, it's usually agony. So it's pleasing to report that Robert Altman's Gosford Park is a refreshingly entertaining period piece, filled with snappy dialogue (when you can follow it), murder, sex, and an attractive, if not downright exhaustive, cast. It's also refreshing to see that the notion of servants having more integrity than the people they serve has been debunked here. Here, both upstairs and downstairs feature characters who lie, gossip, and backstab. Altman's direction, as always, make you feel like a voyeur, like you're watching something you're not supposed to. And that's the fun - you're peeking in on one nasty cocktail party, which is always amusing. But, this being Altman, it's an acquired taste. His overlapping dialogue and low sound mix combine with a broad range of dialects to make viewers strain to hear everything. You're not supposed to hear everything, of course, but not everyone will know that, and it could be annoying after a while. The film is also a bit of a puff piece. It doesn't say anything particularly new about class struggles back in 1930's England, then again it doesn't try. The reason Gosford Park feels like more than what is actually is is more a tribute to the cast, particularly Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith (who could do her part in her sleep), Michael Gambon, and Clive Owen. Owen, in particular, has "movie star" written all over him. He has a presence that trumps everyone else on screen, and it should serve him well if, as rumored, he becomes the next James Bond. Overall, Gosford Park is a nice, airy entertainment brought to a higher level by the skill of its stars and its director. It makes for a nice evening diversion. That is, if you haven't got any fox hunts scheduled.
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