It was a hot humid day, and the prospect for a cool evening by the waterfront
watching fireworks seemed too unlikely to consider. Traditionally we spent this
holiday evening with our friends Fran and Kevin. Since the kids were infants
we'd done this, first buying a selection of our own rockets and later attending
the local celebration, but this year we thought we'd simply get a bottle of
wine, some munchies and a movie and sit in air-conditioned comfort. The
kids, now grown, could fend for themselves. We rented Gosford Park.
It was a film we had talked about going to see when it played the theater, but
we'd missed it. Gosford Park it was.
Robert Altman is one of the most inventive directors working today. For
over 30 years he's been delivering thought-provoking, controversial, and beautiful
works of cinema. His oeuvre has been, though, a virtual study of the American
way of life. From Nashville to M*A*S*H and from Buffalo
Bill & the Indians to The Player, his work has dealt with aspects
of the American myth. Country music as a political tool; Korea standing in for
Viet Nam in a powerful anti-war statement; the politics of celebrity; and the
power of Hollywood. Altman has searched through the history of the USA and used
traditional genres of film-making to comment thereon. As traditional as
the genres he chose might have been, in Altman's hand they were turned upside-down,
and sideways. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie became anti-hero and opium addict
in Altman's "western" McCabe & Mrs. Miller, set to the music of Leonard
Cohen! A laconic Elliott Gould became Raymond Chandler's private dick
Phillip Marlowe in an updated LA for Altman's "detective" classic The Long
Goodbye. Altman has been the most American of directors, and now, in Gosford
Park, he takes on the English country house murder mystery. Altman's Agatha
Christie film? What could this mean?
The film begins, as do most studies of murder in British society, by setting
the tale. We meet an inordinate number of people (an Altman trait) who
come and go with little logic. This is a common enough ploy in the films of
Robert Altman, everyone has a reason for being there, and everyone has a story.
Pay attention. We meet the Lord and Lady of the manor (played by
Michael Gambon and a haunted-looking [but still beautiful] Kristin Scott-Thomas),
who are hosting a party at their home at Gosford Park. We meet
their servants, headman Jennings, taciturn and stiff, Mrs. Wilson, the housekeeper,
a woman whose beauty has been wasted in the service of others... Helen
Mirren was nominated for an Oscar for this role, she is remarkable. As
the guests arrive they are introduced one at a time...although they come in
pairs. The first person is the guest, the second his or her servant. Maggie
Smith plays the snobbish Countess of Trentham, who has come to the party looking
to make sure her allowance is continued. Her maid is the shy, young Scottish
girl Mary Maceachren (played by Kathy MacDonald in a wonderful star turn). All
the guests have an agenda; each of their servants has one too.
Altman, and co-producer Bob Balaban (who helped conceive the story and plays
a major role) wanted to "get it right", and hired consultants who had served
in an estate during the 30s, when the action takes place. The relationships
seem perfect. The cross-cultural relationships are played one way, the
inter-cultural another. Balaban plays an American. The producer of Charlie
Chan films, he has wrangled an invitation to the weekend's events to research
his next film. He is a fish out of water. He needs the phone to
call the coast. He doesn't understand the deep tradition which drives the house
and its occupants. He has brought his own valet, a young Scotsman (played
by Ryan Philippe) whose familiar banter with his "master" sends alarms through
Gosford's radar. Sweet Mary confesses she's never heard a Scot's accent
like his. Balaban represents Altman, in a way, who comes to this unfamiliar
tableau, to observe.
Gosford Park takes its own time, and follows each character to develop
each one as deeply as is possible in two short hours. Altman is a master
of this kind of ensemble work. Even the minor characters are delineated with
a camel-hair brush. Look for the lusty scullery maid; she's fantastic!
By the time the murder is committed, the viewer has been lulled into wondering
just what the mystery might be. In fact, there are so many herrings, some red,
some multi-colored, none black and white! Altman, and his screenwriter
are masters of suspense. Julien Fellowes won an Academy Award for his
script!
Late in the film, the detective arrives. Played by Stephen Fry, the Inspector
is a bumbling twit, who is so overwhelmed by just being in the presence of the
upper-class, he has no idea that they might be guilty of the same thoughts,
emotions and crimes as anyone else. His uniformed assistant continually
points to clues which the inspector ignores. It adds a slapstick side
to the story, which is welcome and refreshing.
There's no point in trying to explain the plot. Someone is killed, there
are any number of motives. Anyone might be guilty. It doesn't matter.
The people are the key. The characters are real; you care about
them. You know what could happen to that randy pot scrubber, and you feel
for her; just as you sympathise with Mary, and Mrs. Wilson, and Jennings, and...
One nice twist is the use of Ivor Novello as a character in the story. Novello
was an English actor and songwriter who appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's first
success, The Lodger. His character appears here 10 years on, without
a recent success, but still a star in the eyes of the downstairs group. The
upstairs people have invited him more as an attraction, in case the action slows
down. Portrayed by Jeremy Northam, Novello sits at the piano and sings.
The songs he performs are the real songs Novello wrote. It's a clever
feature.
The DVD includes a wealth of special features including director's commentary,
deleted scenes, and interviews with cast and crew. But the real treasure
is the film. Gosford Park is an intelligent and beautiful comment
on class and the human experience. I heartily recommend it.
