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"oh HOU HOU."
I decided to see "Gosford Park" during the week before the March 2002 Oscars. After all, the film was up for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Altman). Little did I know that the folks in Hollywood had pulled a fast one on me. I began checking my watch 30 minutes into the show, and I began slouching in my chair, eyes half shut, after 45 minutes had passed. By the end of the movie, my two companions and I had resorted to uttering "oh HOU HOU" when developments concerning the plot´s apex began to appear.
"oh HOU HOU."
The rather long-winded affair that is "Gosford Park" focuses on a hunting party that takes place on an English estate. A murder takes place in the middle of the night, and everyone on the secluded grounds becomes a suspect. Although USA Films (now wholly subsumed by Universal Pictures) marketed "Gosford Park" as a murder mystery, the crime in question takes place so late in the game that I really didn´t care about how the film would end. I suppose one could treat "Gosford" as a "scathing" exposé of morally decrepit English society between the World Wars, but what´s so enlightening about enduring two hours of snippy remarks made by bastards, hustlers, bitches, and whores?
"oh HOU HOU."
The cast list will probably astound you at first glance, but the actors are mostly wasted. You know there´s trouble when the great Derek Jacobi ("Gladiator") is cast as a valet with little to say or to do. Maggie Smith ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s Stone") and Helen Mirren (TV´s "Prime Suspect") both received nominations for supporting actress, but given the rather one-dimensional performance by Smith (pure snobbery) and the so-reserved-that-it´s-not-there appearance by Mirren, one wonders how either lady justified their nominations to themselves.
"oh HOU HOU."
I suppose I did like two things about "Gosford Park". Kristin Scott-Thomas ("The English Patient") plays a sexual adventuress without affectation, and she assumes her character´s identity quite well given her naturally aristocratic air. Also, Ryan Phillippe ("Cruel Intentions") has great fun with a Scottish accent, and his presence provided the film with enough levity to keep me awake until the end.
"oh HOU HOU."
Julian Fellowes took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. While Mr. Fellowes gave a lovely acceptance speech about how kind America is to foreign filmmakers, he certainly did not deserve the Oscar. If I had my druthers, I would´ve denied him a nomination, but since he won a statuette anyway, I think that he was nominated in the wrong category. The "Gosford Park" script echoes British TV´s "Upstairs, Downstairs", novels by E.M. Forster and by Agatha Christie, and so many plays, movies, and poems that one will fail to find an original idea during its 2-hours-18-minutes running time.
"oh HOU HOU."
Video:
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image offers physical and technical excellence. No source defects can be seen, and I didn´t notice any compression problems, either. However, scenes set in the dreary outdoors have a nasty case of muddy grain, and interior shots look so drab that my eyes were a bit strained before long.
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