Mrs. Wilson: I'm the perfect servant; I have no life.  "Tea At Four. Dinner At Eight. Murder At Midnight." Well Gosford Park wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. It's packaged as a murder mystery, but really all it is, is servants gossiping about the higher class and the higher class gossiping about their fellow higher class. The whole murder thing only takes about an hour of the movie, and even then it doesn't really drive the film.  The first hour and fifteen minutes of the film is devoted to getting to know the huge cast of characters. There's so many characters to keep track of. You got all these servants and maids, and then there's all the higher class. No wonder so much time had to be devoted to character development, there's just so many of them. We get to see the life of both the upper class and servants during a weekend stay at a rich mans house. Then the man whose house everyone is at is killed and a detective is brought in, who ends up questioning a lot of people. The movie didn't play out like your standard dinner party murder mystery, where someone is killed and everyone stands around in a big group and tries to figure out who did it. It's grounded, for better or worse, in reality.  What makes this movie a worthwhile film is a huge and talented cast. Maggie Smith, Clive Owen,  Helen Mirren, Ryan Phillipe; and the cast goes on and on and on and on. My favorite performance came from one of the smaller names, Kelly McDonald who plays a maid and is the one who actually pieces the whole thing together and figures out what happened. The performances go a long way in keeping this slow meandering plot going.  I can't say whether I liked this or not. I liked the idea of it and the acting was outrageously good. In the end though, I was left sort of underwhelmed. Hardcore Altman fans are probably in love with this film, but for me, it's just another movie, albeit with one of the best ensemble casts ever configured. Whether or not you'll like it will depend on your ability to watch really talky movies and still find it intriguing. I normally can, but by the hour mark I was kind of ofer the whole gossip thing.

It's the early 1930s and a group of wealthy Britons and an American, along with their servants, all gather at an English country house for a shooting party. All goes along decently well enough until the host, Sir William McCordle is found murdered. From there the film explores the murder investigation from the perspectives of both the servants and the guests. This is some really fun stuff. It's an ensemble darkly comedic whodunit murder mystery period piece, but it's also so much more than that. Yes, a murder is the film's centerpiece, but it's also a finely observed examination of the British class system and the upper class's dependency on servants. The film also touches upon the state of the British Empire during the interwar period, sexual mores of the time, and gay issues, primarily that of the questionable reltionship between the American film producer and his valet. I think that Agatha Christie style whodunits are just fine, but I really appreciated that this film was more than that and tried be entertaining but also provided some insight into the decline of the aristocratic way of life. Robert Altman was a great choice for this, and the results are not disappointing, as this is a wonderful film and a great entry in his oeuvre. It's got all his trademarks, most notably the ensemble cast made up primarily (though not exclusivly) of a who's who's of actors and actressess from the U.K. It took me a bit to get used to trying to keep the interconnectedness of all the players straight, but once I got the hang out it, I found myself thoroughly entertained. I did have to put the subtitles on, but that's no big thing. The script is quite sharp and filled with all sorts of fun twists, turns, and set ups for who did it and why. This is a rather lengthy film, but I really didn't seem to notice it all that much. Everything just cruises right along and all of the exposition is just juicy and fascinating stuff. The cinematography, art direction, and set design are top notch, and the large cast put in some tremendous work. I especially enjoyed Maggie Smith, Kelly Macdonald, and Ryan Phillippe. Oh yeah, and Michael Gambon. He's great too. You should really check this out. It's a fantastically done film that's super entertaining and oh so British. Hats way off.