Gosford Park has been called a murder mystery over and over again, which is about as misleading a definition as you could get. Yes there is a murder, and yes it is mysterious, but it was not at all what I expected which was in some ways disappointing. Had I not thought that it would be like Clue or Murder on the Orient Express I think I would have enjoyed more of what is a terrifically acted and incredibly sharp movie from one of the last great directors, Robert Altman.
The film is not so much about motives and murder as it is about class distinction, and the interaction between-- what the end credits call--the "upstairs" and the "downstairs." We arrive at a huge estate in the early 1930's as the preparations for Sir William McCordle's hunting party take place. Slowly the genteel sophisticates and their servants arrive. There are easily more members of the staff then there are guests, and they are all called by the name of their lord or lady (for the purposes of this review the servants will be addressed as Mr. and Ms., the guests as Sir or Lady).
Like The Remains of the Day a good deal of time is spent explaining the rules of the housekeeper. There is a hierarchy in the downstairs as immovable as there is in the upstairs. There is a wonderful moment where the help are about to have their dinner. The butler to Sir William sits at the head of the table, and everyone else falls in line by rank. A woman sits to the right of Mr. William who snaps "Since when does a baroness outrank a countess?" and hence follows a reshuffling of the chairs. The maids and valets live vicariously through their lords and ladies, gossiping not about each other, but about the private lives of those they serve. The guests know where the true ears of the house lie, and try and get the scoop from their maids as well.
Fortunately for the audience, there is maid still being broken in by Lady Trentham (played by a gloriously snobbish Maggie Smith), and an American servant with different customs than the British. They are educated on the goings-on of the household, and therefore so are we. The latter of the two, Henry (I call him by his first name because the man he serves, Morris Weissman, is a movie producer in Hollywood, and therefore also a Mr.--it would be confusing), plays a larger role than he first appears, and whose actions offer the audience much more than we originally guess. He has a pretty face, and a very healthy libido, which he makes very good use of.
The upstairs works in a remarkably similar way, though they wear fancy clothes, and are much more skilled in passive aggressiveness. There is a hilarious moment when Mr. Weissman introduces himself to some of the ladies in the house. One repeats "Weissman?" incredulously, and with her raised eyebrow hours of salacious xenophobic remarks fly through the air to the other ladies who respond with equally malicious turned-up lips. The Weissman character is wonderful in juxtaposing the new world order to the crumbling decadence of the upper-crust of England. It also turns out that he is a vegetarian (which the cooks below have never heard of), and there were hints of his homosexuality (but you kind of have to be looking for those, which I most certainly was).
We assume that the murder will come from those closest to Sir William (he's the murder victim, but that is clear). The help serve as vessels to which we can see and hear the motives unfurl in hushed whispers when accord has been shrugged off. Sex and money is all that ever seems to trouble anyone, but the elite take these two things with a little more gravity it seems than those below; the maids and valets are just happy to get a bit of either. I become concerned that delving into the problems of these people anymore would spoil the fun of watching it yourself, so I will stop.
This movie is technically a murder mystery, but it breaks the barriers of all of them that I have seen. In others the characters are established, murky motives are laid out, the action happens early on, and then a very smart and capable detective dazzles us with insight. In this film, however, the murder does not come until almost an hour and a half in, the detective is completely inept, and answer that we find more unusual than you might guess. If you want something more traditional find yourself a classic Agatha Christie film.
Reflecting on it now the movie was really very good. The script crackled with highbrow English humor ("Did you have a horrid day?" "Yes, fairly horrid"), and yielded terrific performances from the entire cast, especially from Maggie Smith, Kristen Thomas, Jeremy Northam, and Helen Mirren (is there anything she can't do?). My one problem is that for the first twenty minutes I could not understand half of what was said. The sound editor ought to have been shot. A minor quibble with the film. This is a strong film that is definitely worth taking the time to watch.
3.5/4
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