bnorthup
02-10-2002, 12:38 PM
Gosford Park (R)
At the Myrna Loy
4 stars
The Royal Tenenbaums (R)
At the Gaslight
2 stars
Who's the bloke who stuck the knife in my master’s chest?
By Brent Northup
What a difference a director makes! There are two oddly similar movies in town now, both featuring phenomenal casts starring in eccentric dark comedies. Both films spend more time on revealing the abnormalities of their oddball characters than they do pushing a plot forward.
And there the similarities end. Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” molds his crazy cast into a delightful, Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that leaves us smiling as if Dame Margaret Rutherford herself had returned for another bow. At movie’s end, I applauded, hoping Altman could hear.
In contrast, in “The Royal Tenenbaums” Wes Anderson lets his offbeat characters run wild, never coalescing them into a coherent or touching whole. While it’s true that Gene Hackman may win the Oscar for his portrayal of the manipulative patriarch of this offbeat family, I was (yawn) unimpressed.
But I did love “Gosford Park.” Altman is one of the finest directors alive today –and he proves it, again.
“Gosford Park” is among Altman’s best, joining “M*A*S*H” and “Nashville” at the top. It’s set in 1932 in a British country house very much like the world PBS brought to us in “Upstairs Downstairs.” Like the PBS series, the drama intertwines the upper class who come together to shoot birds and the servants, who live an even more intriguing life in the lower levels. The cast includes Alan Bates, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas and Michael Gambon as the patriarch whose later years are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a butter knife in his chest.
The joy of “Gosford Park” is that nobody, absolutely nobody, seems the least bit normal. It’s like an asylum on a day when all the nurses and doctors forgot to come to work – so the inmates play dress up! If there’s a message it’s that we are all fallible, vulnerable people who need love despite having enough faults to fill every page in a doctor’s prescription notepad. It’s the normal ones we worry about – they’re kidding themselves.
My favorite characters were the detective and his assistant, a quite funny send-up of Watson and Holmes. Even though all signs point to a servant as the killer, the detective dismisses investigating “downstairs” because “we only need to talk to people who had ‘real’ relationships with Sir William.” The detective makes little progress, except to embarrass Scotland Yard.
Altman’s directorial genius lies in orchestrating scenes where dozens of people, simultaneously engage in significant side-by-side conversations. He somehow manages to bring them all into sharp focus.
In “Gosford” he brings astounding clarity to a house buzzing with servants, masters and mistresses. My picks for Best Picture now are complete: “Moulin Rouge,” “Mulholland Drive,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gosford Park” – with the fifth spot open for “In the Bedroom,” “Black Hawk Down” or “Lord of the Rings.”
As for “The Royal Tenenbaums” all I can say is that it’s an acting clinic full of wonderful, monologue-ish performances by the likes of Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover, Bill Murray and Hackman. Lots of parts, adding up to less than a whole. It’s like a bucket full of parts from luxury cars, sitting on the living room floor shiny and valuable – but going nowhere. The old Chevy in the garage runs better.
END
At the Myrna Loy
4 stars
The Royal Tenenbaums (R)
At the Gaslight
2 stars
Who's the bloke who stuck the knife in my master’s chest?
By Brent Northup
What a difference a director makes! There are two oddly similar movies in town now, both featuring phenomenal casts starring in eccentric dark comedies. Both films spend more time on revealing the abnormalities of their oddball characters than they do pushing a plot forward.
And there the similarities end. Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” molds his crazy cast into a delightful, Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that leaves us smiling as if Dame Margaret Rutherford herself had returned for another bow. At movie’s end, I applauded, hoping Altman could hear.
In contrast, in “The Royal Tenenbaums” Wes Anderson lets his offbeat characters run wild, never coalescing them into a coherent or touching whole. While it’s true that Gene Hackman may win the Oscar for his portrayal of the manipulative patriarch of this offbeat family, I was (yawn) unimpressed.
But I did love “Gosford Park.” Altman is one of the finest directors alive today –and he proves it, again.
“Gosford Park” is among Altman’s best, joining “M*A*S*H” and “Nashville” at the top. It’s set in 1932 in a British country house very much like the world PBS brought to us in “Upstairs Downstairs.” Like the PBS series, the drama intertwines the upper class who come together to shoot birds and the servants, who live an even more intriguing life in the lower levels. The cast includes Alan Bates, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas and Michael Gambon as the patriarch whose later years are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a butter knife in his chest.
The joy of “Gosford Park” is that nobody, absolutely nobody, seems the least bit normal. It’s like an asylum on a day when all the nurses and doctors forgot to come to work – so the inmates play dress up! If there’s a message it’s that we are all fallible, vulnerable people who need love despite having enough faults to fill every page in a doctor’s prescription notepad. It’s the normal ones we worry about – they’re kidding themselves.
My favorite characters were the detective and his assistant, a quite funny send-up of Watson and Holmes. Even though all signs point to a servant as the killer, the detective dismisses investigating “downstairs” because “we only need to talk to people who had ‘real’ relationships with Sir William.” The detective makes little progress, except to embarrass Scotland Yard.
Altman’s directorial genius lies in orchestrating scenes where dozens of people, simultaneously engage in significant side-by-side conversations. He somehow manages to bring them all into sharp focus.
In “Gosford” he brings astounding clarity to a house buzzing with servants, masters and mistresses. My picks for Best Picture now are complete: “Moulin Rouge,” “Mulholland Drive,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gosford Park” – with the fifth spot open for “In the Bedroom,” “Black Hawk Down” or “Lord of the Rings.”
As for “The Royal Tenenbaums” all I can say is that it’s an acting clinic full of wonderful, monologue-ish performances by the likes of Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover, Bill Murray and Hackman. Lots of parts, adding up to less than a whole. It’s like a bucket full of parts from luxury cars, sitting on the living room floor shiny and valuable – but going nowhere. The old Chevy in the garage runs better.
END