December 24, 2001 -- "Gosford Park" is a sharp-edged "Upstairs, Downstairs" kind of potboiler and whodunit from maverick US film director Robert Altman. Set in November of 1932, the story takes place during a huge party at the enormous English estate of Sir William McCordle and his wife Sylvia known as Gosford Park.

If there is a depression on, you'd never know it by looking at the people in the upstairs part of the Gosford Park house. Most of the guests at the big party are rich and famous, including movie star Ivor Novello, Esq. (played by Jeremy Northam of "The Golden Bowl"), who entertains the guests at the piano, Hollywood producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban of "Ghost World," who also developed the idea for the film), Constance, Countess of Trentham (played by Maggie Smith of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"), Lord Stockbridge (Charles Dance of "Hillary and Jackie"), Louisa, Lady Stockbridge (Geraldine Somerville), and the hosts, Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon of "The Insider") and Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas of "Life as a House").

The servants downstairs, of course, are a different class of people, not that the classes don't mix, and even have occasional sex, in this particular version of murder in the big house. Heading up the servants are Jennings, the butler (Alan Bates of "Hamlet"), head housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, (Helen Mirren of "The Passion of Ayn Rand"), and the head cook, Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins of "Wit"). Then there are scores of other maids, footmen and other servants, including the Countess' maid, Mary Maceachran (Kelly MacDonald of "Elizabeth"), Robert Parks, Lord Stockbridge's valet (Clive Owen of "Chosen"), Henry Denton, Weissman's servant, (Ryan Phillippe of "AntiTrust"), Dorothy, the Still Room maid (Sophie Thompson), Elsie, the head housemaid (Emily Watson of "Angela's Ashes"), Bertha, the head kitchen maid (Teresa Churcher) and George, the First Footman, (Richard E. Grant of "The Little Vampire").

There are many more characters besides these. The film is kind of like "War and Peace," in that there are so many characters, and each has two titles as well as a name, and they are apt to be referred to by either title or by their given name. I needed a scorecard to keep track of them all. In addition, the upstairs women all tended to dress and wear their hair alike, as did the downstairs women. I had trouble telling them apart. Another problem is that most of the characters are not very interesting to begin with. The story also isn't very compelling, either as a murder mystery or as a social commentary. It was sort of like going to a dinner party and finding yourself surrounded by a group of insufferable snobs, none of whom you would ever think of inviting to your house.

The soundtrack has a wide dynamic range and some of the dialog was at a very low volume, that, plus Altman's well-known overlapping dialog technique and the heavy regional English accents, made it hard to follow some conversations. After studying the film's official web page at length (this is linked below), including the diagrams of how different characters are related to each other, I was able to figure some things out. I will have to see the film again to see what I missed the first time.

First of all, this isn't really a whodunit. Sure, there is a murder and a whole house full of suspects, but it is not "10 Little Indians." This is more about the complex interrelationships between the various people at the party, the servants, the lords and ladies and the hangers on. In 1932, the English were at the point where they could see the end of the once-mighty British empire. Some of those at the party were circling like vultures around the wealthy host, Sir William McCordle. Sir William does not return the attention, however. He seems to like only one thing: a small dog he owns. He's a sharp enough businessman to steer clear of business deals being offered him by people hoping to get rich with his money. The squabbling over money, and Sir William's philandering ways cause a lot of subsurface tension at Gosford Park. This tension occasionally seethes to the surface at the party.

There is a good deal of passion under the surface as well, as there are several affairs, or at least one-night-stands, going on between the people upstairs and the people downstairs. Some of this hanky panky leads to more suspects for the murder case. Then there is the old soap opera subplot of the long-forgotten illegitimate child who shows up, all grown up, with a hidden agenda. The relationship between the upstairs people and downstairs people is complex, more of a symbiosis than a master-servant relationship. This makes the class warfare even more complex. The film is also about the hollow pursuits of fame and fortune, and how all of these things interfere with love. Unlike some period pieces, this film does not romanticize this particular time and place or these people. We see them, warts and all. We even hear some four-letter words seldom heard in films about this time and these classes. There was a time, not so long ago, when the idea of class warfare seemed pretty foreign. With increasing stratification of the upper and lower classes in the United States, it seems a lot more familiar now. This film rates a C+.

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