Saw this tonight.
I'm so disappointed. I had high hopes for Gosford Park...I was hoping it would be Altman at his finest, but no. I think I didn't like it because, well, hold up...let me put it like this: this movie had the same, er, stylistic qualities of Altman's best work, like Nashville. The dialogue, the framing, the camera moves, etc. But there was one crucial difference for me, and that was the characters. I didn't find one likable character in the whole cast. The movie is cold, distancing, and misanthropic.
I suppose one could make the case that we don't have to care about the characters because the movie satirizing them, but I don't buy it. First off, I didn't see it as any kind of satire - I think it hated its own characters. But even if it was meant as one, then why, oh why, are we thrown headfirst into the feelings of characters we're supposed to be laughing at/disliking?
Let me try to put it another way. Early in the movie, Altman offers scenes that perfectly illustrate how snobbish and ugly the upstairs folk are. This is distancing the audience from them. Then, later, he tries to make us care about the very same trivial matters he was thumbing his nose at. I feel the same way about how the servants were handled - we're kept a distance from them at first, then later we're meant to be compelled. And
that's the difference between say, Short Cuts and Gosford Park. Short Cuts cares about its characters, loves them, wants
us to care about them. Gosford Park doesn't - it's more preoccupied with illustrating the divide between its rich characters and their servants, and it's just not the same.
Two more complaints, albeit minor ones - the movie was downright ugly. I don't know what the conditions were when they filmed it, but it wasn't pleasing to the eye at all. The visuals looked straight out of one of those Charles Dickens adaptations from the BBC. Also, the running length. I don't mind longer movies as much as most folks, but during this one I was seriously becoming disinterested. It's simply too long.
That said, I was impressed with a few aspects of the movie, namely the cast (Maggie Smith was great, as usual. Also, Helen Mirren was a standout and a half). I didn't have much trouble with Phillippe, although I do wonder if they came up with the "oh, he's an actor" thing to cover up for his piss-poor accent. Regardless, the performances were pretty solid all around.
And I gotta be honest: At the end of the day, I'd rather watch ten Robert Altman failures than one Joel Schumacher success.
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But then, you get pulled in. You see that an almost military discipline is what give dignity to these people's lives- it is a sort of military, you give up your being to something greater. This is a world where you're grateful for an employer who treats you well and if they don't you make do with what you have because you can't afford to complain.There's a pecking order, a whole world of rules and there are small joys in it. It's a hard knock life, all that. And the life above stairs is just as full of unhappiness - petty betrayals, denials, superficiality.
for you.