Rating: 
Summary: Save this for a rainy day.
Review: My Fiancee and I went to go see this last night and I was pleasantly surprised. First that it was not at all as ridiculously trite as the trailers make it seemmed, but its also brilliantly laid out like a patchwork. At first I admit it was a little slow in introducing the little sub plots for all the characters but I loved the whole drama and / sub drama of the servants. The fact that it was wrapped up in a matter of mere minutes did seem like the writers were just tired of putting in a lot of filler( did you really thing the whole scene was neccessary in the parlor? With the actor singing?) so of course only one person is truly murdered- not multiple hommages to who-dunnits. I did like the cleverness of the ending but it would have been put to better use in my opinion if it was more laid throughout the movie instead of just splaying it all out in the last ten minutes. see this if you like english movies see this if you love good acting. see this if you love drama. avoid it like the plague if you have a short attention span.
I still loved it though!
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Form
Review: Movies continue to increase in complexity and computational sleight of hand. In at least one instance the players on the screen while not yet perfect, demonstrated that soon impersonation of their carbon-based life forms will be a reality. I enjoy technology and the flexibility is gives filmmakers. It can enhance a traditional story or invent a world that exists primarily in ones and zeroes. There is no technological substitute for great actors, directors and screenplays.Happily, their remain the likes of Mr. Robert Altman, a consummate storyteller and filmmaker that relies on character, plot, talented actors and old-fashioned film. The latter is facing a new test, as the next installment of The Star Wars Saga was shot without a single frame of film, all digital video. "Gosford Park", has to represent one of the great ensemble casts in many years. There is a group of familiar names, and then there are more than two-dozen others players that all add to the film. On the surface this sounds absurd, but by the movie's end nearly all the faces you have viewed are attached to some personal story you have learned. Many have a direct involvement in the misdirection of the crime and perpetrator; many simply add depth and breadth to a very richly portrayed film. The year is 1932, and the event, a gathering of characters that generally are British and are hopelessly interdependent on the largesse of their host, of the few Americans that appear, they are intrusive to this structured world and represent the future and all that it will mean to the lives these people cling to, and are surely slipping away. One of the earliest scenes sets the tone for the film. An aging member of the upper crust of England is being driven to the gathering. There is a rap on the barrier dividing her from her driver and maid announcing some urgency. As there is no opening in the partition, the car must be stopped, the maid must exit in to a torrential rain, to do what? Take the top off a thermos that appears to just snap on and off! much too tiresome for The Countess Of Trentham, played faultlessly by Maggie Smith. During this pause there is a brief encounter with American guests, and the exchange sets the tone for what will follow not only in the next several days, but also in the following decades. On top of all this is a first rate, who did what to whom and why, and every who and whom is deserving of your attention. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh....only Vanya was more soporific
Review: I had high expectations for this film, expecially since I enjoy
the British atmosphere and hope to visit England one day. I can't begin to say how let down I was, but the meat of my comments can be found on imdb. In a nutshell, this moving was plotless and extremely boring all the way through - a murdery mystery, where EVEN THE MURDER IS BORING; that's a BAD SIGN, folks!! If you're a realist buff or petty soap opera fan, you'll probably love this movie, but otherwise DO NOT let anyone, even a woman, take you.
Rating: 
Summary: Gosford Park-An Artful Miss
Review: Robert Altman had a wonderful idea. However, the Gosford Park never really delivers what it should have. There are far too many characters of whom very few are actually developed. The acclaimed Derek Jacobi, for example, is wasted as an uncolorful and poorly developed valet. In general, my husband and I had great difficulty in following who people were and who they came in with. Gosford Park could have been a wonderful mystery. The setting is impeccable. With a focus on fewer characters, the viewer would have been drawn into the "who-dunnit" aspect of the film. As it happened, most of the more developed and interesting characters are in a central area when the murder takes place! They are eliminated immediately. So much for suspense. The best part of the film is the vibrant glimpse into the world of "downstairs" life. Having been through so many empty kitchens, laundries, servants' parlors and the like at many of America's Guilded Age mansions, my husband and I thoroughly appreciated for the first time what life "in service" was really like. The film vigorously displays the rigid rules and strict procedures that the servants of various status and character endured. As a result, the viewer experiences a new understanding and empathy for this once-common way of life. Kudos, as always, to Maggie Smith. Her performance is wasted on a film that goes no where. (It does have a climax and a resolution, but both are reached with no hint of drama.). I can recall Miss Smith's similar character in "Tea with Mussolini", where both the character and the movie are developed clearly in conjunction with the story line. Robert Altman, who is credited with the idea of Gosford Park, did an injustice to Miss Smith and the other wonderful artists in a film in which he tried to do too much and accomplished little. He should have concentrated on capital "D's" in drama and direction and left the writing to a new Agatha Christie incarnate.
Rating:
Summary: Altman at his peak !!!
Review: NOTE: IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ THIS REVIEW PRIOR TO SEEING THE FILM IT WILL NOT SPOIL ANY OF THE MOVIE FOR YOU.
When Altman is good, he's very good and here, he's at the top of his game and is supported with a strong cast--perhaps the finest ensemble acting you've seen in years, and a strong script. Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" should be also be used by film directors as they prepare their films. 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. The murder and even the who-done-it isn't what is important here though, it's the characters and their relation to one another. Space limits me saying much more about it except that this film is almost a masterpiece and certainly one of the very best films of the year. Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed,ground-breaking steamy suspense thriller.
Rating:
Summary: A Whodunnit that Dares to Ask Why
Review: I avoided Gosford Park for the longest time, figuring I didn't need to see Robert Altman's take on an Agatha Christie script for Upstairs Downstairs. I also fell victim to my own aversion to period films that feel obliged to hire all the usual UK suspects, figuring this would be akin to Merchant-Ivory style-over-substance filmmaking. I was delighted to find Gosford Park a most delicious wolf in sheep's clothing. It delivers a trenchant expose of class struggle and social hierarchies, far more demanding and rigorous than typical mainstream fare. Be forewarned: you can't just sit back and watch this movie; you have to engage your intellect. There are plenty of twists here, but few relate to plot. The movie is continually commenting on itself (most delightfully with a Hollywood producer who spins murder mystery narratives over the phone and a running commentary on the relationship of actors to their roles). The director also delights in upending the usual trappings of the genre. The investigator is an utter bumbler caught up in his own prejudices about class, leaving the suspects to interrogate themselves to discover whodunit. Not that the culprit is much of a mystery or the murder the real crime Gosford Park chooses to investigate. The film is far more concerned with why such an act was committed as it asks if we really can assign guilt at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Can we leave yet?
Review: This is a slow and boring movie. I did not care about any of the characters; half of them were unnecessary. The murder victim and the killer were thankless roles. It is more like this story line was addes because they did not know where to go with it. Maybe I am being too harsh. No. I think it is fair because for something that has been reviewed as a murder mystery where anyone could be a suspect, it takes way too long to even get to the murder. At a painful 137 minutes, it takes 90 just to get to what is supposed to be the main story. Two-thirds of the movie is bad development of pointless characters. I'm giving this two stars because I did like Maggie Smith's performance. And there were two funny lines. Otherwise, I think this movie has been highly overrated. I think it might have worked better as a stage play.
Rating:
Summary: Not as great as I'd hoped
Review: Before you see this movie I highly recommend that you are clear as to who the characters and their inter-relationships are. I didn't and found it very hard to follow who was who and therefore their possible motives for the murder. I don't know if that was a problem with the screenplay, the direction, the accents, the sound or just my hearing. But I think you will enjoy it more if you already know who a character is when somebody else is talking about him/her. I agree that it was too long by about 15 minutes, if not a little more. The murder doesn't happen until at least halfway into the film and the investigation is far too short, in my view. I wanted to see more of Stephen Fry as the idiot Inspector and his much more talented underling. They could have also cut out the hunting scene where you get to see a lot of pheasants (I think that's what they were) shot dead for sport. I guess the idea was to show us how insensitive the ruling class was, though I think the point had already been made.
Rating:
Summary: ROBERT ALTMAN'S ENGLAND
Review: A panormamic camera eye sweep of a weekend party in an English Country Manor in 1932, complete with "Upstairs Downstairs" busy body, wise, helpless servants and bored, wealthy, pinky finger rising patriarchs and matriarchs who share with their servants only an indelible appetite for sex. This is exquisite cinematic finger food trays and glasses of expensive bubbly, and of course a corpse, served with an adoration of British upper-class mannerisms and etiquette by the masterful Director Robert Altman who defines the Agatha Christie murder-mystery genre with a fine dusting and polish. Maggie Smith is as delightful and dynamic as reviews of her performance have insisted. Her stuffiness, doubt, innocence and comedic relief as an aging aristocrat define the surly upper British class way of life on the eve of enormous change. Even when Ms. Smith is merely another person in the room without dialogue, her presence and mannersims add an air of authenticity to the vivid tapestry. The hunting party scene, where privileged aristocrats shoot birds from the sky like they're attacking an enemy, is rich in decadence with birds dropping from the sky to the shoes of the wealthy in filthy splendor. So too is the scene where haughty patriarch and host (Michael Gambon) leaves the dinner table like an insulted king after being confronted with a suggestion he is fooling around with the servants. A concluding scene between sibling servants, which attempts to compound all the plot, is the film's only flaw, a too melodramatic and emotional conclusion to the movie's steady theme of class struggle. A small gripe though, in an excellent film.
Rating:
Summary: I should have waited to see it on TV....
Review: Gosford Park, while certainly not a BAD film, seems more like a BBC Television production than a theatrical release. It follows the typical Robert Altman formula: A large cast walks around a large set, overlapping each others dialogue; someone is murdered....who did it? Why? How? (Who cares???) Altman covered the same ground in The Player and Short Cuts; the only difference here is the setting and the accents, which are so thick that they are nearly incomprehensible. I would (conservatively) estimate that I missed about a quarter of the film because I couldn't understand the accents, and the problem is underscored by the mumbling delivery of a lot of the actors. I was very interested in the dynamics of the "Master/Servant" relationship, and the cast was filled with some of my favorite British actors, so I'll give Gosford Park a 3. I may have liked it better on DVD with the "English Subtitles" option activated....
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