Gosford Park
Robert Altman has continually vacillated between treasure and trash. On the treasure side we have his true classics: M*A*S*H, Nashville and The Player. But the trash seems to outweigh these high-art achievements. Films like Brewster McCloud, H.E.A.L.T.H., Popeye, Short Cuts, Prêt-à-Porter, and Dr. T & the Women cloud a career that most critics consider outstanding. I’m of the opinion that Altman is a little high on himself and that rubs off on his movies, but you don’t read these reviews for opinions of people now, do you?
Gosford Park is excellent. The treasure here is the upper crust of English society and the trash are the people that serve the treasure’s every whim and fancy. The man of affluence in this film is Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) who is married to the much younger Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas). The McCordle’s are hosting a hunting weekend at their English countryside estate and all manner of the bold and the beautiful are invited.
The biggest problem is that Sir William is a jerk and not well liked by most of the people attending the hunting weekend, both privileged and non-privileged alike. They include such British film and stage luminaries as Maggie Smith (Constance, Countess of Trentham), Richard E. Grant (George), Clive Owen (Robert Parks), Alan Bates (Jennings, the butler), Derek Jacobi (Probert), Helen Mirren (Mrs. Wilson) and Emily Watson (Elsie). Almost all of the attendees have one problem or another with their host and over the course of the weekend some will attempt to show their displeasure in the gravest way possible.
The Haves in the film reside upstairs away from the Have-Nots and Altman does a fine job of juggling both the rich and their poor help. It’s all tuxedos and caviar above ground-level, while the groundlings that serve them eat at a plain wooden table. The best part of the film is what Altman does with the mingling of the two social classes and how they interact.
The only problem that I had with the film was that the cast was a little to huge for your average viewer to pay attention to. The majority of the time the Haves are referred to by their last names or their title while sometimes they refer to each other by first names. A connect-the-dots game could be played with all of the characters.
Other than that one small problem, I liked the film. Altman is a fine craftsman and it shows brightly here that he truly loves his subject (and like a king, his subjects) and gives them rich enough parts to show that all of them, regardless of social strata, are humans.