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Video: Low deeds in high places
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 27, 2002
Gosford Park (R)
[Photos: USA Films]
A weekend hunting party turns ugly in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park. |
Venerable filmmaker Robert Altman made another comeback with this classy ensemble piece, centered on a weekend hunting party where there's so much back stabbing that someone must wind up dead.
Ryan Phillippe, left, and Helen Mirren star in Robert Altman's Gosford Park.
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The plot -- as usual for an Altman production -- isn't as crucial as the personalities propelling it, an assortment of class-conscious aristocrats and wannabes, catered to by servants barely able to mute their disdain for the masters. The cast includes Oscar nominees Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith, but everyone gets a moment to shine in Altman's creative democracy.
First impressions: "On the surface, Gosford Park seems like just another slice of upper-crust life, something Merchant-Ivory could cobble together from leftover wardrobe and sets.
"Underneath the ruffles, Gosford Park is precisely what Altman does best, yet hasn't done in so long. The setting, a weekend hunting holiday populated by muckety-mucks and their servants, allows Altman to employ his trademark schematic of ensemble characters living parallel stories that sometimes appear to be about nothing, yet dovetail into something remarkable."
Second thoughts: Nominated for six Academy Awards, the erudite screenplay by Julian Fellowes was the film's only winner.
Rental audience: Altman admirers, folks who enjoy tea-and-crumpets movies.
Rent it if you enjoy: Anything from the Merchant-Ivory archive, plus the layered dialogue of Nashville, The Player and Short Cuts.
* * *
The Affair of the Necklace (R)
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Adrien Brody, left, and Hilary Swank in The Affair of the Necklace.
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Hilary Swank followed up her Oscar-winning performance in 1999's Boys Don't Cry with an unfortunate excursion into Merchant-Ivory territory. Swank plays countess Jeanne de la Motte-Valois, left impoverished by the French Revolution, plotting to steal a priceless necklace from a crafty Catholic cardinal (Jonathan Pryce). Joely Richardson costars as Marie Antoinette, and Christopher Walken steals the show (naturally) as a mystical schemer.
First impressions: "This kind of skullduggery (a word actually used in the film) would be more appropriate in the hands of an actress who includes devious scheming among her specialties -- Helena Bonham Carter or Catherine Zeta-Jones. (Swank) exudes trustworthiness, which is the wrong quality for this assignment.
"She also embodies a certain plucky vulnerability, when what is wanted for Jeanne Valois is the Monica Lewinsky gene, the ability to imagine herself in the embrace of the great. Above all, she needs a kind of Bette Davis imperiousness. Swank, I fear, believes we should feel sorry for Jeanne. So does Charles Shyer, who directed this movie and sends Swank on the wrong assignment." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Second thoughts: One of those Oscar hopefuls that everyone took seriously until they saw it.
Rental audience: Same as Gosford Park, only stuffier.
Rent it if you enjoy: Masterpiece (Dinner) Theater.
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