Film Reviews

Gosford Park

• Rating:
• Director: Robert Altman.
• Starring: Michael Gambon, Kristen Scott Thomas, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Jeremy Northam, Emily Watson, Maggie Smith, Charles, Dance, Helen Mirren, Richard E. Grant, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry.
• Details: UK / 136 mins /

Details: UK / 136 mins / (15PG). Set over the course of a November 1932 weekend at a secluded British estate, where Lady Sylvia McCordle (Scott Thomas) and her husband Sir William McCordle (Gambon) have invited a dozen or so of their aristocratic friends for a weekend's shooting. Over the course of said weekend, Sir William is murdered and the guests ponder who could have been responsible, and, in the process, examine their own lives. This may be a moot point to anyone familiar with his output over the years, but Altman films have always been extremely watchable affairs, and Gosford Park is certainly no different. Indeed, if anything, with its myriad of characters and plot intricacies - most of which are pitched perfectly - it rivals Short Cuts as his most effective piece of the last twenty years. On the surface it appears to be a murder mystery, but Gosford Park is a far more effective social satire, with barely a minute or word wasted in this hugely engaging portrait of the social classes.

Review by Garreth Murphy