Qtexas, Volume 2, Issue 18, January 18, 2002 Page: 20
40 p. : col. ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Take part in ant's so rare these days for a film
to hit as close to home as does
Robert Altman's murder mys-
tery, Gosford Park. Yes, fellow
aristocrats, I feel your pain. I
know how hard it is to find good
servants and prevent them from
sleeping with my houseguests. I
also realize that an unannounced
vegetarian can throw off the
preparation of all six courses. And
most of all, I understand the
grand socialfaux pas of hosting an
elaborate event that ends in mur-
der. Occurrences such as these
can tarnish one's reputation for
years - and leave pretty nasty
stains on the carpets to boot.
Leave it to Mr. Altman, howev-hunting festivities alone, but truth
be told, most of them are hoping
to get a little cash from good old
Willie in some form or fashion.
But not all the drama occurs
among the social elite. In fact, the
collection of butlers, maids, cooks
and valets downstairs at the man-
sion stake a claim to their own
amount of drama and intrigue.
Power struggles between the
housekeeper (Helen Mirren), the
butler (Alan Bates), the head
housemaid (Emily Watson) and
the cook (Mrs. Croft) ensure that
the events upstairs will run
smoothly, but not without the
exchange of a few barbed words.
Then there's handsome younger, to bring a remarkable ensem-
ble cast together for an elegant
hunting weekend in the English
countryside - and weave a web
of wit and deceit so deliciously
complex that it's no surprise the
film is already getting heavy Oscar
buzz.
The year is 1932, and friends
and family of Sir William
McCordle (Michael Gambon) and
his wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott
Thomas) have gathered at
Gosford Park, their magnificent
estate. Among the invitees are
Constance, Countess of Trentham
(Maggie Smith), Hollywood film
producer Morris Weissman (Bob
Balaban) and matinee idol Ivor
Novello (Jeremy Northam). They
are all there purportedly for theHenry Denton (Ryan Phillippe),
Mr. Weissman's bisexual lover,
who poses as his valet in order to
get an inside look at the workings
of the household from a servant's
perspective - perhaps as research
for the producer's next Charlie
Chan film, coincidentally set in
an English house full of wealthy
guests and an untimely murder.
So, as you might guess, it isn't
long before the Chan movie plot
becomes reality for the Gosford
guests when none other than Sir
William is found dead.
The resulting investigation, as
well as the whole film for that
matter, is what makes Gosford
Park unique from its whodunit
brethren. Where other movies of
the genre build up the plot at aQtexas 20 18 January 2002
study on
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Qtexas Publishing, LLC. Qtexas, Volume 2, Issue 18, January 18, 2002, periodical, January 18, 2002; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2124312/m1/20/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.