Gosford Park

Gosford Park
January 18, 2002
USA Films etc.
Historical, Mystery, Drama, Comedy
DVD
B+

As with Monsoon Wedding, it takes awhile to sort out all the characters and their relationships in this movie, but fortunately this film holds up even better to repeat viewings.  Yes, it's a mystery, but the whodunnit is just one aspect of the intricate plot.  I also feel that the various threads are resolved satisfactorily, if usually not thoroughly.  The movie was directed and co-written by Robert Altman, so this "ensemble piece" aspect is not surprising.

The setting is a house party in 1932.  We get to know both "upstairs" and "downstairs," and how they sometimes overlap, sexually in particular.  I'm going to mostly just mention the people who are in other films of mine (some of them of course in the Harry Potter series), although they're by no means the only ones giving strong performances.  The closest to a heroine, and the one who solves the mystery, is Mary Maceachran, played by Kelly Macdonald with a soft Scottish burr and very observant eyes.

• Bob Balaban, who plays Morris Weissman, helped come up with the concept for the film and his character is the most an outsider, as a gay, Jewish Hollywood producer.
• Stephen Fry this time plays Inspector Thompson, the bumbling detective, who adds a more farcical element to the movie.  (Most of the rest of the humour is very dry.)
• Michael Gambon, as William McCordle, is very gruff, with none of the warmth or whimsy of his later role as Dumbledore #2.  (Of course, there are Potter fans who see him as just as gruff as Dumbledore.)
• Richard E. Grant, as George, spends a lot of the time sneering at people, but it works much better than when he was sneering at the Spice Girls as their manager.
• Tom Hollander, as Anthony Meredith, is the only happily married man in the movie, although he is worried about money throughout most of the story.  His role of the short and insecure man is not unlike his role in In the Loop at the other end of the decade.
• Jeremy Northam is understated but pivotal as Ivor Novello (the only real character), since he shows the importance of pop culture to "low-class" people, while the upper classes look down on him and it.  He also sings well as Novello.
• Maggie Smith, as Constance Trentham, not surprisingly comes closer to stealing the film than anyone does, making the most of her wonderful lines.  Yet there's a poignancy to her role, since she, too, worries about money.  (And, yes, there's a certain retroactive irony to McGonagall pleading with Dumbledore.)  She would of course go on to the television series Downton Abbey, which was created by one of the screenwriters here, Julian Fellowes.
• Geraldine Somerville as Louisa Stockbridge (the red-haired sister) is very different than in her saintly role as Harry Potter's dead mother.
• Sophie Thompson, as Dorothy, gives one of the messages of the movie, on the importance of loving someone, whether or not the love is returned.

Note:  John Atterbury, who plays Merriman, would be the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

It's so exhausting training new servants.

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts
September 4, 1992
Miramax
Comedy, Drama
VHS
B-

This "documentary" about the imaginary title politician, a "rebel conservative" whose folk singing parodies Dylan, is not exactly dated, in that it's very specifically set 1990-91, so much as it's a time capsule.  It matters that it's not only set in the months leading up to that particular Gulf War, but that this is long before Sarah Palin and the Tea Party and the rest of the more laughable but scary elements of the modern Republican Party.

It stars 33-year-old Tim Robbins, who also wrote and directed it.  His political rival is perfectly cast, Gore Vidal, then 67 but looking older and more tired than that.  (The novelist and essayist was himself the grandson of a senator, and he provides an insider's viewpoint.)  More surprising casting is that of Roberts's power behind the throne, Alan Rickman, as Lukas Hart III, here sounding very American and fast-talking.

I would actually recommend this movie most for the cast.  Not that it's boring or anything, but the satire is never as sharp or as funny as it should be.  When the movie satirizes Saturday Night Live in the guise of Cutting Edge, it's a bit glass-housey, as is some of the political satire.  (The music satire is actually fairly savvy, as in the INXS-like music video.)  The movie also seems to want to be a mystery and a drama, or even a tragedy.  There is some good acting and some hmmm moments, but it's not up there with mockumentaries like Zelig or Spinal Tap.

Allan Nichols was Rough House in Popeye and plays the director of Cutting Edge here.  Brent Hinkley, who's Bif the Patriot here, was Larry in Zapped Again!  Joe Shelby, who has an uncredited role as a doctor here, would be an uncredited bus rider in Dogma.  Bob Balaban plays Michael Janes here and would be Morris Weissman in Gosford Park.  Robbins's long-time partner Susan Sarandon appears as a TV news anchor, while Helen Hunt is a reporter.  This time Peter Gallagher plays Dan Riley.

Both John Cusack (the Cutting Edge host) and Jack Black (obsessed fan Roger Davis) would of course appear in High Fidelity, which would have one of the vigilantes here, Brian Powell, as Middle Aged Customer.  And the screenplay would be by Steve Pink, who's the Penn State Professor here.