Well I must say this was a disappointing film, especially considering it was by Robert Altman, one of the great American directors. This film was long, tedious, dull, and slow, and I was struggling to hold still in my seat I was so anxious for the film to end. For me, the only thing that made me pay any attention was Maggie Smith who played a hilarious British rich snob, and her lines in the film were great. Yet other than that, although it was a great cast, this film, uh.... why don't we say SUCKED. It was amazingly hard to follow, the lighting of the house that the film took place in gave me a headache, and although the ending was good, I found that I couldn't care less what happened. Altman uses an hour and a half to build up the characters, but he has so many characters in the film that there is absolutely no character development--the audience is too confused and bored to care about breaks in the story. In the previews to the film, we find out that the film is about a group of rich guests going to a British country home for a hunting party, and one of them is murdered. But by the end of the film, we don't even clearly discover who the actual murderer was, and I had no clue who did it, and didn't really care, until someone told me. On top of all that, because almost of the characters were either Scottish or British, I found it difficult to understand. I would almost like this film more if it weren't being nominated for an Oscar, especially best picture, because a film like David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" deserves an Oscar much more than "Gosford Park." I do think that Altman did a great job creating a really closed- in and claustrophobic feeling within the house, and every scene that was shot outside made me feel relieved and free from the madness of the characters within the house-yet this was Altman's genius, and for me one of the only highlights of the movie.
Review of Gosford Park
