Premise: A wealthy early 20th century dinner party is scandalized after a murder with an unknown killer.
Robert Altman + Julian Fellows really does sum up the entirety of this movie. It looks and sounds like Fellows' hit from a decade later, Downton Abbey. The huge ensemble and darkly comedic tone are emblematic of Robert Altman, especially in that era. This is 100% exactly the movie I expected, which means, it was an OK movie.
The cast is incomparable. One of my favorite podcasts, This Had Oscar Buzz, has a weekly game where the hosts guess what the 4 Known For movies on a person's IMDB page are, and it's a running joke how often Gosford Park shows up. This movie has everyone. It would probably be quicker to list off who isn't in it from that era. Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith are the people who got Oscar nominations out of it, and that feels about right. This is rightly the jewel of Altman's late era. It's a lavishly dressed movie. No one in the cast feels unintentionally out of place. It juggles a dozen story lines nimbly. It must frustrate other filmmakers how easy Altman makes it look.
I did find the movie a little dull and stuffy. I realize that the humor of the movie is meant to combat and play off that, but, like most Altman movies I've seen, the humor didn't work for me. So, I was just left with a lot of the stuffiness. There's an aware cleverness that never seems to work for me with Altman. Still it's a good movie. It didn't quite jive with me, much in the way that I never felt the need to watch Downton Abbey, but it's still a good movie.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment