Gosford Park (2001) - M1.6/E3

Do you remember the days of walking up and down the seemingly endless aisles of DVD/VHS cases at your neighborhood Blockbuster or Hollywood Video?  Was there ever a movie cover that intrigued you, but never enough for you to pick it up off the shelf to find out what it was about?  Maybe this is just a weird occurrence, but I remember my eyes always lingering a little longer on the cover of Gosford Park.  Granted, the movie is only 11 years old, but the red, black, and white colors, and storyline of a murder/mystery dinner party sounded fun (if only because of my fond memories of the movie Clue).

The real reason for not picking it up, probably had to do with the movie's rating; but I've realized that as much as I immerse myself in what type of content is in what type of movie, my intuition is pretty good when it comes to knowing how much questionable content is in a given movie and where the MPAA doesn't really help.  I was right on this one; I was more offended with the content of the PG-13-rated Transformers 2 than I was with the content of this movie.

Netflix now has Gosford Park available to watch instantly, which made it a lot easier to just throw on.  I'll admit that I was tired when I watched this, so take that into consideration when you read what follows.

I waited and waited for something to happen.  When it finally did, three-quarters (maybe two-thirds) of the way through, it was underwhelming.  The reveal at the end of the story was interesting only in the slightest (enough for me to not rate this a 1 for Entertainment).  I wouldn't call this show a murder/mystery, but more like a murder/drama.  There's nothing mysterious about it.  A lot of the plot summaries I read also credited it with bein witty or funny, but that also was not the case.

What tipped my remote to push play was a statement in one of Uncle Orson's latest reviews regarding a reflection on previous Oscar nominees,

"That year the astonishingly good Gosford Park was nominated -- Robert Altman at his best, with brilliant performances from top to bottom of the cast."

I realize I haven't said a whole lot about the movie, but there really isn't much to be said.  There were a lot of characters introduced, while only a handful mattered.  The overall cinematography and flow of the story was well done, but the execution and carry through of the plot was horrible.*  Maybe if I were to watch it again when I knew what I was watching and when I was in the mood to watch it, I might enjoy it and give it a better rating; but I don't see that happening any time soon.  There are too many better movies to spend my (and your) time watching.

The only coarse language comes from an American (a bit ironic), and there's some non-graphic bed/table relations that give the movie it's rating.

*Please bear with my lack of good movie critiquing terminology.  I've got materials to better educate me, but have not had time to delve into them yet (nor will I in the near future).  However, also understand that I feel quite confident in my ability to critique a movie's moral value, which is the main point of this site.