There are films that just aren't for you (me). This is one of them. I don't care much about Gossip of real people, let alone about fake people of 100 years ago.The twist is clever, sure, but that was about it. Still, probably is more that I just wasn't a target for this kind of film

Robert Altman's "Gosford Park" is among the highlights of his career. While it isn't close to being my personal favorite of his films, it's still an easy choice for one of the best films of the 21st century. With a great ensemble cast, plenty of overlapping dialogue, and an almost indescribable and documentary like filmmaking style, "Gosford Park" is has Altman's signature style written all over it!It's interesting to note that the actual murder mystery plot doesn't began until over halfway into the film. Before the murder, we've just been spending time with all of the characters. Although the mystery was my favorite part of the film, it isn't the centerpiece that it normally would be. The characters are the centerpiece, and the murder is just something that happens to them.

It's the 30's. Various guests are gathering at English country estate Gosford Park for a hunting weekend. Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith) arrives with her servant Mary MacEachran (Kelly Macdonald). Actor Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam) arrives with American vegetarian film producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) and his valet Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe). Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) are the hosts with their daughter Isobel. There are also Lady Sylvia's sisters, Louisa, Lady Stockbridge, and Lady Lavinia Meredith with their husbands Raymond, Lord Stockbridge, and Commander Anthony Meredith. There are also Freddie Nesbitt and wife Mabel, Lord Rupert Standish and his friend Jeremy Blond. The help includes butler Jennings, George, and Elsie (Emily Watson). Secrets are revealed by the upstairs and downstairs interactions. Someone is murdered and Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) investigates.Like many Robert Altman movies, this has an avalanche of characters. I'd be lying if I say that I followed everyone and everything. It's a big task to keep everyone's story straight. It does have a compelling flow through everything. Kelly Macdonald is the eyes through which I see this movie. The acting power is vast. The cinematography is beautiful. The plot does ramble as Altman movie does but it's the endless supply of characters that make it compelling.

My abiding memory of this film is my irritation with the vastly overrated Julian Fellowes for being unable to get the language of the period right. In Britain of 1932, NO ONE said things like "No worries!" or "End of story!". There are other linguistic anachronisms, but these two are the worst ones. Both expressions are examples of modern "estuary English" and no educated person would ever utter either. The wealthy, the landed gentry, and the aristocracy in England would never even have heard this type of expression; in fact, they had not yet been invented. The ghastly, interminable soap "EastEnders" has a lot to answer for regarding the debasement of British English, as has the never-ending Australian soap "Neighbours".The plot is very derivative and there are glaring flaws and holes in the narrative. In some ways, Gosford Park reminds me of an Agatha Christie mystery but the plot simply doesn't hang together. HOW did the housekeeper KNOW that the son she gave up shortly after giving birth to him 31 years previously would kill his natural father? For that matter, HOW did she even know WHO he was? She had not seen her son since he was ca two weeks old! He was brought up in an orphanage, and at the age of 31 he is now the valet of Lord Stockbridge, who just happens to have been invited to stay at the country house belonging to Sir William, the man who fathered an illegitimate son on one of his female factory workers 32 years earlier. This woman is now the housekeeper at his, Sir William's, country house. That in itself is rather odd, to say the least. HOW did the valet KNOW that Sir William was his natural father? He states to a fellow servant that on his birth certificate it said "Father unknown". There are far too many incidents of the "two terrible twins": contrivance and coincidence.