GOSFORD PARK

Starring: Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Kelly McDonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emily Watson
Director: Robert Altman
Running Time: 137 mins
Certificate: 15

Seen as the height of good taste in the 1930's, Sir William McCordle (Gambon) and his wife Lady Sylvia (Scott Thomas) have invited their close relatives and friends to their Stately Home for a weekend of shooting and socialising. Lady Sylvia's Aunt Constance (Smith), noted actor Ivor Novello (Northam), and Lord Stockbridge (Dance) are all in attendance. All the honoured guests are, of course, accompanied by their own servants, who are all overseen by the Head Butler, Mr Jennings (Bates) and the House Keeper Mrs Wilson (Mirren). All is going splendidly until on the second night arguments about money, affairs and past deeds rear their ugly heads and thus lead to the revelations of hidden pasts, dark secrets and murder.

As soon as Robert Altman announces he is going to make a movie, everyone wants to work with him for little or no money. This time it is the British that gain his attention and he has collected together the best talent this Fair Isle has to offer. The cast list reads as a who's who in British acting circles and they all light up the screen. Special mentions have to go to Maggie Smith for her performance as the terribly upper-class character, Constance and Kelly McDonald as her naïve young maid, Mary.

The pure joy of the picture is the way it shows the completely different worlds of the servants downstairs and their employers upstairs. Never have I seen this captured so well in a movie, through a combination of great acting and good screenwriting you can really see that the upper-class really lived in a world of their own and their servants saw and heard everything and said nothing.

The movie's only real flaw is that some of the characters and sub-plots are very underdeveloped and you feel that they have been added just to add some length to the movie. Jeremy Northam's Ivor Novello is very underused and many others such as Charles Dance and Derek Jacobi only really seem to be cameos, not fully fledged characters.

This aside, the movie is still tremendously enjoyable and is a showcase for British talent. One shouldn't really miss it.

Director's commentary, Deleted scenes with optional Director's commentary & 2 Documentaries 'The Making of Gosford Park' & 'The Authenticity of Gosford Park'