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movie review - Gosford Park

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one 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.

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