A great movie gives you a parting gift. It can be a rush of adrenaline that leadens your accelerator foot. It can be a slight Irish accent you unconsciously mimic. It can be a hand-holding-let's-go-skipping-through-puddles thing. But, the best movies give you this feeling of being totally fulfilled. \Gosford Park"" is the most recent film in a growing list that gave me that gift.
For me, it has a lot to do with plot. Brooding character studies or deep sociopolitical satires are fine, but I really like tightly woven stories. A complex plot is like a mystery within itself'remembering names, making connections, recognizing allusions. I'll forgive any defect in ""Magnolia,"" ""Memento"" or ""Mulholland Drive"" just because they gave me something to take home and mull over. ""Gosford Park,"" too.
Robert Altman's latest film takes place at a country estate in England in the 1930s. Lords and ladies, clinging to their names in place of lost wealth, meet for a pheasant shoot. Their servants come too, joining the valets, maids and kitchen staff already at the mansion. Everyone gossips or provides fodder for gossip, so when the head of the house is murdered, there are motives to spare.
Between the upstairs and downstairs, there are over thirty characters to keep track of. Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Emily Watson, Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren and a gang of equally recognizable actors mingle or bustle through the rooms. Yet, Altman and writer Julian Fellows give each of them enough depth to seem like a real person, rather than just another name. ""Gosford Park"" is one of those few movies where the characters seem to have lives and histories even off camera.
Understanding and keeping track of the characters supersedes the importance of the murder mystery. It isn't so much a who-dun-it as a why'd-they-do-it. All hide their true feelings with a witty remark or a painful snub that shows both intelligence and exhaustion. The servants, maybe more so than their employers, are tired of keeping every moment of life formal and orderly. The slow death of the entire household makes the murder seem unimportant.
That all sounds so depressing, but the way the director and cast pull it off is quite funny. The jokes are subtle. Maggie Smith pinches her last pennies at the same time she looks down her nose at the lower class. Bob Balaban, who plays a Hollywood director butting in on the party, ties up the phone and wears a fur coat to go hunting. Stephen Fry, as the inspector, fumbles his way through the investigation, busily trying to impress the upper class and ignore the servants. It's a witty, sharp film.
If you see ""Gosford Park"" and enjoy it, I'd warn you that searching out Altman's other films is a dive into vast and dangerous waters. He's an excellent director who has made some films that are painful to watch, and I couldn't hazard a guess as to which you might enjoy. On the other hand, there is a wonderful series of ""Masterpiece Theatre"" films based on P.G. Wodehouse's ""Jeeves and Wooster"" books available on video. They are a similarly funny and intelligent look at the disharmony between the upper class and their servants in the same time period that ""Gosford Park"" takes place. Find them for rent somewhere.
