User reviews

I know there are many fans of Robert Altman out there, mystifying though that is to me. I did somewhat enjoy Nashville, BUT, his particular style does not leave sufficient time or space on film to develop the characters in any depth, nor do we see any real growth.

I had a similar reaction to this film, but found Gosford Park even less satisfying, thanks to the very high hopes I had based on the writing of Julian Fellowes, which has been so magnificent in Downton Abbey, and on the sheer number of extremely talented actors/actresses in the cast. Sadly, all of this talent is wasted in this film. Mr. Altman seems not to have sufficient regard for his audience to feel that it is necessary to actually tell a story.

The result for me is a film which doesn't know what it wants to accomplish - will this be a rich, rewarding drama of lives affording us the opportunity to care about intriguing characters, or will this be a brain-teasing British mystery? Sadly, as a mystery it is an epic failure, since the murder in the story and its solution seem not to interest the filmmaker at all and none of it is really resolved. As a British drama, it also fails miserably, in that we don't really get much of the interactions of the characters to learn enough about them to be interested or to care what they do.

In fact, I will be forced to muddle through this film a second time (should I even waste my time?) merely to see which character goes with which name. There is no excuse for this sort of sloppiness, regardless of whether that is Robert Altman's personal style or not. Perhaps he just is an incompetent director? I would love to see this film remade with the same cast including an extra 30 minutes of screenplay written by good old J. Fellowes. As it now stands, it doesn't quite add up to a whole story.

Visually stunning but slow, dull, unsurprising and uninspiring! This movie does for whodunnits what JAWS did for beach holidays! If it's a glimpse of the English class system you want, watch "Remains Of The Day" or "Upstairs Downstairs". If it's a good whodunnit you want, revisit the genius of Miss Agatha Christie. She can intrigue and surprise an audience. In this movie, Mr Altman can't!

The Player sells out on a "period" piece. Looks great; sounds terrible.

You might enjoy Gosford Park if you like a feeble plot, illiterate script and overall a kind of pompous, superficial windbaggery of the worst sort -- a farcical servants' eye scrapbook of what some might think the ruling class.

This pointless, vastly overlong (should lose 40 minutes and half a dozen characters at least), confused claptrap has some of the foullest performances by some great British actors on film (especially Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith yet again, Alan Bates and Stephen Fry).

They are not helped by the ludicrously implausible behaviour of the circus of cardboard characters -- they seem to talk business ALL the time (so common) and money! Even the tiresome American character/s (is Ryan Phillippe playing an American -- or anyone -- in Act II?) are incredible as people and everyone seems be shouting at each other ALL THE TIME or whispering. Whatever "witty" venom on offer is spectacularly childish and no-one seems to be listening to what anyone else is saying (wisely, I believe).

It is hard to believe that anyone could take this appalling drivel remotely seriously, especially when big chunks of plot are doled out from time to time with such clunky clumsiness.

When is it set? Hard to tell since the period bits and pieces are all over the place -- and Bloody Mary (the drink, not the monarch) was first recorded in England in 1956. And precisely where would "bought" marmalade be available? And what was wrong with Frank Cooper's Oxford anyway?

Where is it set? Those standard rent-a-great-house locations that now look more like horrible new-rich "country house" convention and wedding reception centres than anywhere real people might actually live? Is there any coherent floor plan of the house and the catacombs for the far-too-obtrusive servants? (Continuity seems to have been a big problem here.)

See The Shooting Party, Rules of the Game, The Magnificent Ambersons or Remains of the Day instead -- do not waste your time with this dreadful tin-eared goo.

I don't understand why this film has such high ratings. It's ok but considering the ensemble cast it left a lot to be desired as far as the actual plot goes. I found it long winded and it had lots of unnecessary scenes and dialogue between characters that led to nothing and added nothing to the film plot. I was expecting a big reveal at the end but it was more a splutter. All in all if I had to describe this film in one word... disappointing!

I watched this movie because of all the great reviews here.

I will never listen to you guys again! This movie was a 2 hour bore! It was terrible! A bunch of boring English people talking about boring things and the last 30 minutes were supposed to be some murder mystery that turned out to be not very mysterious at all.

Rating: 2/10

Long, boring, pedantic, and pointless.

I'm so worn out after watching this meandering muddle that I can't offer much of a review, except advice: save your time!

I'll say more: This movie makes uncomfortable watching, perhaps that's a tribute to the director. He really does give a sense of living in the 30s; OTOH, the movie was preceded by an old TV series that already dramatized the tensions between the rich and their servants (Upstairs, Downstairs).

To repeat, this movie is over-rated, over-long, and over-done.

Altman surely could chosen a better story?

But maybe he simply had to impress some UK duchess or such and set the story in that milieu.

Otherwise, why bother?

Can I have my two hours-plus back, please?

Typical post 1990 Robert Altman movie. Let the guy direct, but don't let him write. Dialogue is supposed to get you somewhere. Movies are supposed to have suspense and drama and foreshadowing. I gave up trying to figure out the names and relationships in this movie in the first 20 minutes--there were too many people, too many inter-relationships, and none of it vaguely interesting. The humorous parts were only humorous as a relief from the doldrums. Even the murder itself and the discovery of the murder were uninteresting.

If you like Scottish, Irish, and English accents and people dressed up in period outifts, you will love this movie. If you are an ugly American that thinks that movies are more than dressing up and speaking with a foreign accent, then well, go to Starbucks before you go or don't go at all.

No offense to those who found this movie to be brilliant--but I got nothing! I haven't seen any of Altman's past work. I only know him by reputation. He is known to be a very talented filmmaker--at least that's what most people believe--who specializes in films that contain an ensemble of characters. Well, if I gave a damn about any of these characters, I wouldn't hold anything against Altman. But none of these characters--except for Maggie Smith's, slightly--engaged me.

The movie is about two hours and fifteen minutes and feels like an eternity. It's like watching a stage play--a very boring one. The characters talk and talk and talk and talk some more. So it is a dialogue-driven piece. Even dialogue-driven pieces often have some visual eye candy, though not in abundance. Anybody who has read a book on Screenwriting knows that audiences do not want to see talking heads! OK, there are movies like "American Buffalo" and "The Big Kahuna" which are both based on plays and contain lots of talking heads, but the acting is so powerful in those movies that I didn't feel nearly as claustrophobic as I did when watching "Gosford Park."

Now, the cast is definitely full of talent. As my Dad said--and he's pretty much right--most of our greatest actors come from England. And many of those great English actors are in this movie: Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Jeremy Northam, Kristen Scott Thomas, etc. But their characters are so dull that they really didn't have much to work with. But I do have to say--and this is just me--that the English accents are thick and sometimes quite hard to understand. Of course, if this movie didn't depend too much on dialogue, I could still catch on to the story. But since it does, I had a hard time keeping track of the story. I was at the point where I was struggling to stay awake and about halfway through I didn't even bother trying to figure it out.

The humor is quite bland. Once again, maybe it's just because I'm American and I don't share the English mentality. Though I've seen a fair deal of funny English comedies, let's face it--there are always certain things that are funny to one ethnic group, and not funny to others. So I'll give the comedy element the benefit of the doubt. If this were an American movie and it wasn't funny--I have the right to say it's not funny. I'd rather keep an open mind. However, Maggie Smith has a few funny lines. I like the scene in which Bob Balaban, who plays a hotshot Hollywood director, is about to pitch the story for his new movie, but he doesn't want to give anything away. Smith comments, "It's OK. We're not gonna see it anyway." I wouldn't exactly say that she deserves an Oscar for her role, but she is the one person who actually breathed some life into this film and I commend her.

This is basically supposed to be a mystery/thriller, and it could've been much more intriguing. That's why I compare this movie to a boring, monotonous college professor giving a lecture: You know that whatever he's teaching can be fun and exciting, but it's delivered in such a deadpan fashion that no one cares to listen--or in this case, watch.

Maybe the artistic quality of this film completely flew over my head; maybe not. You be the judge. I'm just giving my honest, unpretentious opinion. If you want to see something deep and compelling, and keeps you interested, I suggest you buy a ticket for "In the Bedroom." But if you find "Masterpiece Theater" moving and thought-provoking, you'll probably have a ball with "Gosford Park."

My score: 3 (out of 10)

I wish I had read the comments before I went to see Gosford Park.

Everyone who commented on the difficulty in understanding the actors was absolutely correct. It's more than just the British accents, it's actors mumbling their lines, and poor sound quality overall. It was extremely difficult hearing the actors, not to mention trying to keep track of who's who. I frequently watch British films and television shows and my ears are quite familiar with British accents, so that was not the issue as some comments have mentioned. Be warned that you will be in for hard work trying to follow the storyline. I haven't been this disappointed and let-down about a movie in a long time. What a waste!

Altman meets Agatha Christie, with some pretty confusing results. Agatha Christie's mysteries were a finely honed balance between character development and plot detail—knowing just enough to care about discovering who the killer was and why he/she killed.

Unfortunately, Altman cares about neither aspect of story development here. There was a time when the mention of an Altman film gave me shivers of anticipation and excitement. Altman had crafted the ensemble cast concept into a visual delight - M*A*S*H and Nashville spring instantly to mind.

But, like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and Gosford Park is definitely the end of Altman's creative spark. Altman proved that an ensemble cast of 15 people could be a rare confection indeed. Under his skillful control he was always aware of how a good plot and subtle character nuances could bring out the best in his characters—and hence the story.

Yet, like the greedy child in a candy store, Altman attempts to "go extreme" and serve up a mishmash ensemble cast that topples over at 30! Among the jumble of corridor scenes, kitchen scenes, and bedroom confessions are a few bright spots—Maggie Smith as a tired aristocrat with attitude, the too-inquisitive maid, and the bumbling, self-assured detective who hasn't a clue---for a change!

Another extreme was the pacing of the plot. Was it necessary to keep the pace at fast forward? A smaller cast and slower pace would have done much to save this lovely-looking film from pretentious posing.

Is this Robert Altman at his best or worst? GOSFORD PARK is a slow moving all-star murder mystery. A beastly owner of a 1930's British estate is killed during a weekend shooting party and upper crust get together. The movie is very wordy and mostly with bad accents. The murder event is not as important as the attitudes and suspicions between the high class guests and their servants. The cast members dialogue make the movie. You either find this entertaining or pretty lame. Wardrobes and sets are outstanding. Notable among this large cast are: Kristin Scott Thomas, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Jeremy Northam, Kelly Macdonald, Maggie Smith, Emily Watson and Ryan Phillippe. A hot buttered rum sounds good about now. Brandy if its handy.

I went to see Gosford Park knowing absolutely nothing about it. All I knew was that it had good reviews. I didn't even know it was a whodunnit. Nevertheless, this movie was so formulaic that even before anyone was killed, I had solved the mystery. In fact, I knew who would die, how, why, and at whose hand. Given the fact that the first hour or so of the film is a very boring introduction to a bunch of uninteresting characters, and the rest devoted to 'revealing' the killer, I can't imagine spending more tedious time watching a film. No wait; I can. I've seen Unbreakable.

I saw this at a film festival when it originally came out. I came in with great expectations and left feeling cheated. Gosford park is full of every single cliché that has ever been raked over in a thousand British films, TV series, and even plays since the 1920's. It's much like Noel Coward's The Vortex crossed with a cheap made for TV Mrs Marple adaption. If you're interested in story lines focusing on British upper-class hypocrisy, murder mysteries, and the upstairs downstairs dynamic, I strongly suggest you skip this and go looking for a few good Mrs Marple TV adaptions, you'll certainly get a better class of writing.

Disappointed . Too many cast very simple story with unusual mystery.

I have to agree with the (minority of) people who didn't like this film. Despite the star-studded cast and some excellent performances, the film seemed at least half an hour too long. There seemed to be no real atmosphere created, certainly no tension or feeling of threat, and even the humour was confined to the occasional titter rather than anything outstandingly clever or funny. For me, the major problem was that I couldn't make myself care about any of the characters - even the murder victim. Director Robert Altman has to take the blame for this, in making many of them witty and amusing, but none of them sympathetic. Social comment, perhaps, but I would say there's more human interest in five minutes worth of the Upstairs, Downstairs TV series than in this whole, long film.

The sound, too, seemed to be badly recorded. Despite turning up the volume on the DVD loud, there were many sections where I was straining to hear what the characters were muttering.

Overall, a waste of time.

A good indicator that Oscar voters have a perverse sense of humor. Undoubtedly if anyone but Robert Altman had perpetrated this film, it would have immediately fallen into oblivion. A group of dreadfully uninteresting people gather at a 1930s English country manor, where the gossip is only momentarily halted by murder. The film was marketed as a slightly comedic whodunnit, but there is nary a laugh to be had and the whodunnit seems almost an afterthought. Even the view of social mores and how the working class were forced to vicariously live through the scandal provided by their "betters" feels like warmed-over Upstairs Downstairs. Altman fans will probably be rabid in its defense, but there is really no legitimate reason for its being. While it is somewhat amazing that Altman is able to introduce so many characters and keep a multi-tiered narrative from falling into total confusion, he has managed to do this in far more compelling films. It takes virtually an hour to figure out who is who and by that point we realize that we would not want to know any of these people. When the murder finally occurs, the characters are so unimpressed that there is no reason for the viewer to care either. Incredibly, the older actors come off worse than the younger. Clive Owen, Kelly McDonald and Ryan Phillipe (usually horrible) are decent in ill-defined roles. Emily Watson provides the only full-bodied performance of the lot as a wronged maid. Veterans like Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi, among others, are virtually wasted. Stephen Fry shows up two-thirds in as a bumbling inspector and not only seems to have walked on-set from another film altogether, but is embarrassingly bad to boot. Of the Oscar nominees, Helen Mirren's nod is puzzling since she virtually plays an automaton for the duration of the film as a stoic head housekeeper, and Maggie Smith's acid-tongued shrew is surprisingly joyless and downright obnoxious. The film fails as social commentary, fails at drama, fails at comedy and fails at mystery. And were Altman fans to be honest with themselves, I doubt very many of them would rank this high in his pantheon of cinematic work.

How truly disappointing to see critics fall all over themselves, lavishing accolades upon a film that's a mere piffle, at best. May I start by saying that I am a HUGE fan of Robert Altman's ensemble tapestries! Though his overall prolific output has careened wildly over the past 30 years -- with more "pits" than "cherries" I might add; although those cherries are just about the sweetest one could ever hope for! ("Nashville," "Short Cuts," "3 Women," "A Wedding," "The Player," to name a few) -- the 90's brought about a revitalized creative energy from the great American director, after the downward spiral of his 80's output. Granted, the 90's brought about a fair number of misses ("Kansas City," "Pret A Porter," "Dr. T. and The Women"), as well. However, the heights reached by "Short Cuts" and "The Player" dwarf like a Mt. Olympus over those earnest and worthy, yet disjointed and disengaging efforts. I eagerly awaited Mr. Altman's latest, "Gosford Park," since reading "Variety's" Todd McCarthy's rave a few months ago. Subsequent and further reviews were also laudatory! (In hindsight, to the point of obsequiousness!) A half-hour into the film, seated in a packed theater with a noticeably inaudible audience, a friend nudged me with his elbow and whispered, "Am I supposed to be laughing here?" (It became a running joke for the next two hours.) Much like the impression I had after my first visit to London to witness the starry hullabaloo of the West End theatrical scene -- seven "highly-acclaimed" plays, in seven cramped to dilapidated theaters, in a whirlwind four days -- my posterior felt numb and I couldn't help but feel that the critics must've seen a different version than the one I just witnessed. (At least in the live theater outings, the plays came with intermissions and a bar.) "Gosford Park" (sans intermission and spirits) was a complete and utter bore -- much like the "boars" that inhabited the film's wafer-thin scenario! How arbitrary and lame was that whole third-rate "Agatha Christie"-like thread! Oh, you might say, "Ahhh, but the acting!" Like the world-weary "upstairs" characters, I was unimpressed by what can best be described as competent -- retreads of far superior characters in far superior stories/films. Yes, those English actors sure have their bored airs down pat! "Gosford Park," my fellow filmgoers, is ultimately an expensive-looking, high-minded (read: "snooty"), far-less amusing, far-less intriguing version of any number of Agatha Christie filmed novels, including sorely underappreciated "Murder Under The Sun." If someone says that I'm missing the point, that the film is more a study of the classes and less about the murder and subsequent investigation, then I reply by saying: "Give me original characters worth studying! Give me original characters that I can care about! Give me ANYTHING original!" "Murder By Death" anyone???

Everyone grows old. Even Altman. That isn't to say one of cinema's greatest masters has gone senile. . . but it does flag up the fact that 'Gosford Park' is, well, geriatric.

The subject matter was never going to provide the edge of M.A.S.H or the wide sweep of Nashville. But it could (and should) have been much, much better.

An 'Upstairs, Downstairs' reworking on the back of a pointless murder mystery, Gosford is as over-blown as it is over-praised. Altman's usual cinematic mechanics are all there, of course: the flowing camera work, the multi-narrative tracking. But here though, that's exactly what they are: mechanical. And. . . They don't work.

Halfway thru the movie it's still difficult to figure out precisely who is who. Worse though, it's difficult to care, and as the script lurches downhill into one improbability after another an overwhelming sensation of boredom sets in, precipitated as much by the absence of plot credibility as character credibility: there are some in this ensemble with less substance than cardboard.

An overload of any element in any movie is never a good thing, and 'Gosford Park' plainly bears it out: the cream of British acting may be present, but it's a cream that pretty soon curdles.

At the end, then, one is drawn to the conclusion that the work of Altman and his collaborators is uncomfortably close to its subject matter, because the eponymous Gosford Park is, in British parlance, a stately pile, slowly mouldering away. . .

As, indeed, is the movie. Rating: 3/10.

Extremely stiff and stodgy. Slow moving and predicatable plot line. Several times the accents make the dialogue unintelligible. Nice pictures of the English countryside and architecture. The entire movie was character development with out a character that was worthy of development.

Well, where to I start... I guess the most important thing that comes to mind in connection with this movie is that it is NOT, NEVER ANY SORT OF DETECTIVE STORY. NEVER. In terms of prioritizing, the mystery-solving element or suspense is in the umpteenth place. It is almost completely IRRELEVANT here, because by the time something does start to happen in this flick(idle talk aside) it is way past the midpoint. I kept wondering: when will it start, when will it actually start, when will somebody do something AT LAST???. But it was hopeless - a detective story it was not to be, but just a neverending sequence of idle aristocratic talk about NOTHING (plain gossip for the most part) set in some rural estate somewhere in time.

On a bright side, though, is the cast - it is impressive, performances are good, natural, and believable - we must stay honest and give the makers credit for that. But again, otherwise this film is a complete waste of time, unless of course gossip, meaningless talk and details of servants' way of life is what you look for in a detective story.

My mark is 3 for one and only reason - acting (the only ray of light here). Other than that it was BOREDOM epitomized.

Way too many pseudo-clever British takeoffs. The story had great potential, but it was buried in a hodgepodge of pointless sub-text which gave little chance for the main characters to be characterized.

The inspector was ridiculous but he was obviously supposed to be, this was one more example of how to bury a good mystery buried in a pointlessly overdone movie with a production that reeked of Architectual Indigestion.

All that remained, was the oh, too obvious, conclusion, which was stupidly hinted at throughout the film.

Good talent and a good story sufferd from a poor script and an even worse production.

Indeed great efforts have been made to create the film's imposing atmosphere. Credits should also be given to the convincing -only occasionally bombastic-performance of most of the actors/actresses.

But who can really account for the sadistically slow progression of the plot? We may be aware of the basic cinematographic and literary device of retarding the flow of events, but exceeding the limits of that technique is bound to bring about sheer boredom. To make matters worse, an initially sporadic and gradually frequent lack of coherence resulted in the film's fragmentation and in a feeling of confusion and profound discontent.

Embitterment will haunt you for a while after watching the movie, but then it will disappear into oblivion.

The English countryside is pretty, and from a historical perspective the look at the inner workings of an early 20th Century British aristocrat's country manor during a weekend shooting party is mildly intriguing, but the bloated cast, snail-paced storyline, incoherent mumbled conversations and easily telegraphed plot twists make for a dismal entertainment experience. The actual "mystery" takes up only a very small part of the film, which is severely overweighted by what turns out to be thoroughly useless character and situation set-up. (In fact, this very brief part of the story seems to be from a different movie altogether- and indeed, a much more interesting one). The resolution, to use this term very generously, is very rushed and incomplete. How this can be described as a "comedy" by any means is beyond me. "Gosford Park" is not a complete waste of time, but only barely so.

In one word, if I have to describe - disappointment. Understood, there was a satire of the English class structure, and some good acting by English actors, but that is all there is to it. The number of characters kept increasing and you get caught up trying to keep up, which is very disconcerting, and takes your mind off of the actual subtleties which would probably make this movie a little more worthwhile than it actually is.

But, it was a drag with very little plot, which is plain boring and tedious! The two things missing were the lush scenery that I have come to expect of a period setting movie, and the mystery that it was described as.

There is so much hype, and so little in this movie, to warrant it. I would wait for the DVD when it is rent one get one free, if I had to do it again.