Gosford Park (2001)

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

The English countryside atmosphere is established straight away, complete with a dreary rain shower in which the guests arrive. It was fun to see so many familiar faces, especially Maggie Smith from 'Downton Abbey' (which was made as sort of a sequel by the producers of this film - as I understand it). Laurence Fox (DC Hathaway in the TV-series 'Lewis') may easily be missed, since his part is very small. For the rest of them, just check the IMDb cast list.'Gosford park' is a somewhat chaotic movie. It's pretty hard to figure out who's who and what is exactly going on in all the nooks and crannies of the big estate, but if you stay focused, a first viewing should offer enough information to get the gist of things. There is of course a murder mystery, but not until late into the film. The most important themes aren't revealed until even later, either, so what remains for the bulk of the time, is the doings and dealings of the upstairs and downstairs population, which I found quite entertaining and intriguing to observe. The addition of an American movie director talking about making a detective film, was rather funny. And there's plenty more parts like that, of which I must mention Stephen Fry's detective character.Maybe the story is quite contrived, but it worked for me and Robert Altman's direction is always a pleasure to witness. There's a lot of fine acting here (of course), but I will probably never become a fan of Clive Owen; something about his presence is just plain dull to me.Good fun was had by all, so to say. 8 out of 10.

I cannot believe how I was captivated, rewinding seconds I've missed 1 hr before the murder was committed. Normally I would have fast forwarded or Googled the synopsis. There was no useless actor. I mean if Clive Owen and Ryan Phillippe are reduced to valets, you know this is composed of heavy hitters.The plot and hidden motives are so complicated. You need to watch this 2-3 times. Do not discount anyone and you may be lucky guessing whodunit before the detective arrived.Also after watching it so many times, I still am confused where everything is. And I think being aware of the floor plan can help you guess early.This is Downton Abbey meets Midsomer Murders. I have abandoned Agatha Christie type plots a while ago but I think i am making a comeback.

My abiding memory of this film is my irritation with the vastly overrated Julian Fellowes for being unable to get the language of the period right. In Britain of 1932, NO ONE said things like "No worries!" or "End of story!". There are other linguistic anachronisms, but these two are the worst ones. Both expressions are examples of modern "estuary English" and no educated person would ever utter either. The wealthy, the landed gentry, and the aristocracy in England would never even have heard this type of expression; in fact, they had not yet been invented. The ghastly, interminable soap "EastEnders" has a lot to answer for regarding the debasement of British English, as has the never-ending Australian soap "Neighbours".The plot is very derivative and there are glaring flaws and holes in the narrative. In some ways, Gosford Park reminds me of an Agatha Christie mystery but the plot simply doesn't hang together. HOW did the housekeeper KNOW that the son she gave up shortly after giving birth to him 31 years previously would kill his natural father? For that matter, HOW did she even know WHO he was? She had not seen her son since he was ca two weeks old! He was brought up in an orphanage, and at the age of 31 he is now the valet of Lord Stockbridge, who just happens to have been invited to stay at the country house belonging to Sir William, the man who fathered an illegitimate son on one of his female factory workers 32 years earlier. This woman is now the housekeeper at his, Sir William's, country house. That in itself is rather odd, to say the least. HOW did the valet KNOW that Sir William was his natural father? He states to a fellow servant that on his birth certificate it said "Father unknown". There are far too many incidents of the "two terrible twins": contrivance and coincidence.