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Directed by: Robert Altman

Cast: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Camilla Rutherford, Charles Dance, Geraldine Somerville, Tom Hollander, Natasha Wightman, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, James Wilby, Claudie Blakley, Laurence Fox, Trent Ford, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Ron Webster, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi

Runtime: 137 mins

Robert Altman is a man who invested a lot of time making his movies. He left a mark in so many departments of cinema especially sound. He would have dialogs spring out of characters that are not even visible on the screen. He loved clever interplays between many of his characters and also trying to make the viewer as disconnected from the ramblings in the background. This disconnection was cleverly used in Gosford Park to implant a certain mystery in the minds of the viewer. An American writer comes into a British household to write about an English story and even to get influences from many of the characters in the movie. This household is suddenly marred with a death and everyone seems to be suspect. Everybody begins to pluck at each others wits to make matters worse. Altman tries to get into the directors chair very late into the movie creating a mood induced introduction of each of the characters.

It turns into an illogical loop of emotions if you get into thick of the movie. But the wildness of Robert Altman’s nature begins to show when the culprit needs to be found. He handles dialog like a juggler taking some of the characters in the foreground while others are in the back. It almost feels like we are seeing the action in several angles just with the sounds created on the sets of this beautiful film. It might be difficult if you don’t follow what happens from the very beginning. There are so many characters names thrown at you at regular intervals its hard to keep track. So it starts becoming layered and you feel like you need to pay more attention. But this is one of the traits of his film making style. It also gets into the weird character sketches of many of the old English writers. Thus making it more English than many of the other British made films.

Altman uses the American character as the only cliché in the enterprises. He slices him up and shows the shallowness of his whole existence. He never tries to redeem him and almost makes the character inexistent at times. But to get into the whole story of the movie and the several stupendous performances will be grave on my part. The film boasts of a superb cast who are somewhat who play their roles as it is told. But after a while they feel like they are being watched. But this is something to be marveled as its an art to do this itself.