Tonight I saw Gosford Park at The Esquire. As with last night, click on the link above to get the plot.

It was co-written by Altman and Julian Fellowes (and English actor). It has a rich cast of well-known faces (at least in Britain), many of whom take on bit-parts, without worrying about their careers too much. The other night I saw Altman on TV, talking about this film. He said that there was no way he could have made this film in Hollywood, because actors of that calibre, in Hollywood, would never dream of taking bit-parts. Their egos and/or their agents, wouldn't allow it! So, that's a brief chance for me to feel patriotic!

Gosford Park was a wonderful film. Full of details, and beautiful scenery. It almost made me homesick, even the rainy scenes! I'd expected to like The Royal Tenenbaums more than this film, but it wasn't to be. I enjoyed Tenenbaums, but I was rivetted by Gosford Park. It's a bit of a whodunnit, but unlike a lot of TV whodunnits, the audience was shown all the clues as the thing progressed.

That's something that irritates me about the likes of Morse, Poirot et al. I love the series', but I hate this business of them shoe-horning in extra facts and evidence in the final denoument, without which, the audience couldn't possibly have worked out who the culprit was.

Anyway, it's a great film, with a enough gentle humour to take the edge off the murder!