journal features

movie review - Gosford Park

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2002.09.29

This is a comedy that combines class warfare, sex, murder, and satire. It's set in the UK in the 1930's, and involves a gathering of some of the country's upper crust at a 'country home' (e.g. mansion) for a turkey shoot. It follows everything that's happening "above stairs" and "below stairs", and throws the relationship between the two societies into sharp relief.

With entertaining performances by a number of the cast, it's an amusing flick that covers a lot of ground. Unfortunately, I found the bizarre speech of a number of the characters overwhelming, especially when so many accents came together. I know I missed some of the many subplots because of this (one in particular remained a loose thread that bothered me).

Strongly recommended.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner