Movie Gosford Park (2001)

Watched 20100622 (DVD)
Watched 20130925 (Netflix, Instant, HD) (Streaming until 20130929)
Gosford Park (2001) Robert Altman.

Mary MacEachran (Kelly Macdonald), Constance's maid.
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This was a strange movie and I managed to sit and watch about one and a half hours of conversations before something interesting took place. Perhaps if you're good at keeping track of characters and names then you'd be alright with the movie. Part of what kept my interest was not knowing what the movie was about.

Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas)
Another reason the movie kept my interest, was the setting made it seem as if someone should die. I mainly got this feeling, because it's just a lot of talking for a while.

Then at one point, the character named Morris Weissman, the movie producer, talks about the movie he's working on and that's when events started to slowly build up. The resolution happens in about the last twenty to thirty minutes.

From left to right: Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins),
Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe), and Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren)
I have the patience and enjoy dramas. However, I have trouble keeping track of all the characters. This film has an abundance of character development, perhaps excessive. I suppose in this way, when the problem came along, I didn't know who to consider as the antagonist. If it were to be a straightforward movie, it would have lasted at most 45 minute, a third of the 137 minute runtime.

Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon)
With that being said, I enjoyed just listening and watching the interplay between the two classes. It was a good movie.

Apparently Ivor Novello was a real celebrity, but his portrayal in this movie is fictional.
There was a dialect coach. There was a piano tutor. There were tutors for other things too.

Constance Trentham (Maggie Smith)
Instant Comments:
started movie at 10:20 PM
fell asleep at about 12 midnight
woke at credits at 12:37 AM
resumed movie where I fell asleep at about 12:40 AM
finished the movie at 1:23 AM

A knife has gone missing.
While it seemed I enjoyed the movie the first time around, I'm sure I understood the plot more the second time around. I couldn't, however, have understood the movie without the help or reading various plot summaries while watching the movie.

Instant Comments:
There's actually a lot more going on than I seem to have given the film credit for after my first viewing. In particular, Ryan Phillipe's character Henry Denton asks a lot of questions and seems to be causing a good deal of trouble prior to the 45 minutes mark.

Robert Parks (Clive Owen) and Mary.
That's perhaps the second time the camera focused on the poison. (50 minute mark)
Huh, at 54 minutes, he's rubbing poison on the watch. I guess perhaps the bottles are just labeled poison, but have different purposes.
Confirmed affair at 1 hour 7 minute mark.
1 hour 18 minute mark: muddy shoes.
"This house is a poisonous paradise." "We found this stuff in every room."

Mary and Elsie (Emily Watson)