Film
Gosford Park seems to be one of those films which has gradually slipped into the nation's consciousness through critical acclaim rather than marketing pomp. And the subtle entrance the film made as it slunk onto the big screen is what makes it fantastic. Nothing is rammed in your face to a techno, soaring classical, or nu-metal soundtrack, and in spite of the heinous tag line ("Tea at four, dinner at eight, murder at midnight",) it cleverly manages to define itself as a murder mystery without actually being one.
The plot is fairly straightforward. The year is 1932, and myriad members of the English gentry, along with their servants, gather together at the estate of Sir William McCordle (Gambon) for a weekend of shooting which all goes gruesomely wrong when Sir William is murdered and all his guests become suspects. However, this central plot is eclipsed in many ways by the secondary stories which emerge both upstairs and downstairs. Sir William's relatives philander and scheme, whilst in the servant's quarters chain-smoking gossips thrive, long lost families are reunited and sexual tensions simmer, occasionally boiling over in the laundry rooms. These smaller sub-plots successfully jostle for attention, replacing the grand scale tension of more traditional thrillers with short, sharp bursts of drama. Even after the murder has happened, the newly widowed Lady Sylvia (Scott-Thomas) decides that life has to go on hours after her husband's body is discovered, by bedding the valet (Phillippe).
Altman has assembled an impeccable cast who give strong individual performances. However, very few characters ever manage to steal the limelight completely, with Altman often choosing to highlight two characters at a time, each of them enhancing the other's performance. Kelly Macdonald plays the maid of the Countess of Trentham (Smith), and participates in some of the best of these pairings; her incompetence as a servant allows Maggie Smith fantastically catty lines, her scenes with (yet another) valet resonate with decorum-tainted passion, while those with Emily Watson's maid, Elsie, bring out the best in both actresses. However, even when scenes of sweeping thirties glamour or servility take place, the whole cast act incredibly well, playing off the others to the extent that the tone of the piece is not unlike a cinematic docu-soap, suspending the drizzly world of 2002 for an exciting and different era.
One of the film's few flaws is the slight over-egging of certain images, making some strands of the plot a little obvious, yet even this does not detract from the overall splendour of the piece. Even the obvious bits twist and turn until they are abstracted and unresolved, which might be unsatisfying for those who enjoy films with a beginning, middle and end, but nevertheless makes for an involving experience.
Gosford Park is not a film for the faint hearted. It is a two hour waltz (pretentious, moi?) through a plethora of brilliant acting and script, with all the dramatic denouements exploited to the full. The mood swings effortlessly from the funny to the tragic to the pathos-bathed, and the result is a consistently compelling work which deserves to do incredibly well.
"You can't rush art", the old man repairing Woody tells the impatient toy collector in Toy Story 2. You certainly can't, and this movie is a testament to the painstaking process of computer animation. Monsters Inc., the latest offering from the Pixar/Disney team which gave us the Toy Story films, continues to push back boundaries.
The plot, however, is relatively simple. Monsters Inc. confirms what every child knows about things that go bump in the night. What we have here is the secret life of monsters. The setting is Monstropolis, a hidden city whose energy needs are provided by the urban company Monsters, Inc. ("We scare because we care"). The energy source, children's screams - a nicely dark premise - are extracted by an elite team of scary monsters. Inside the factory, an elaborate conveyor system brings in various closet doors that are portals to children's bedrooms.
CEO Henry Waternoose blames flagging energy levels on the fact that "children don't get scared like they used to." But the odd couple Sulley (Goodman) - a gentle giant with blue fur and purple spots - and one-eyed green blob Mike Wazowski (Crystal) are about to break the record for scream points. However, they face tough competition from chameleon-like rival Randall (Buscemi).
But just as kids are scared of monsters, the real joke here is that the monsters believe that human children are toxic and are equally scared. Disaster strikes when a cute, young girl - Boo - accidentally enters Monstropolis. What follows are Sulley's and Mike's attempts to return Boo to the real world at whatever cost...
As fun as it is, Monsters, Inc. compares unfavourably with its predecessors. The dialogue lacks sophistication and the plot lags in the middle; part of the stagnancy is caused by the lack of variety in setting. It is only in the final scenes, with a roller-coaster ride at break-neck speed through the conveyor system, that we have anything as panoramic as the opening scenes of Antz.
Still, Monsters, Inc. has much to offer: the contrast between Goodman's affectionate baritone and Crystal's high-pitched sarcasm is particularly entertaining. This is a film to be enjoyed, and it ends on a high with a great finale.
I'm reliably informed that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My aesthetically challenged flat-mate also 'reliably' informed me that he once had sex, so perhaps that axiom is true.
This is largely the premise behind the Farrelly brothers' latest gross-out comedy Shallow Hal. The eponymous Hal (Black) is a superficial, who-cares-what's-inside type of guy who just wants to bang hot chicks. Then a hypnotic encounter with a self-help guru leaves him a changed man: Hal is made to see people's inner beauty manifested in their outer appearance. In other words, good-hearted, ugly girls appear gorgeous. Enter Rosemary, a 300lb woman who in Hal's eyes looks like Gwyneth Paltrow. Hal falls for her 'inner beauty', and when the curse eventually breaks and he sees the 'real behemoth', he decides he loves her anyway. Awwh.
This could have been a kitsch classic, were it not for some rather irritating flaws. Firstly, the central theme is that all fat, ugly people are beautiful inside, and that, conversely, good-looking people are vain and arrogant. Not only is that complete bollocks (I'm not at all vain or arrogant), but I know I'd rather wake up with the lovely, lithe Izzy from Hollyoaks as opposed to 'big, yet bubbly' Chloe. And, by the end, I was totally unconvinced that Hal (no babe himself), could love someone so big that her school photo was taken via satellite.
The biggest letdown is that the film isn't really that funny: no Sperm-on-Ear or Penis-in-Zip set-pieces such as the Farrelly brothers are infamous for. But there are, admittedly, some amusing scenes, particularly when Hal believes he is dancing with three gorgeous women, whilst his friend (Alexander, in a great, non-PC role) watches in horror when he sees something akin to the family tree of Fat Rik from Pop Idol.
Though the laughs are few and far between, this is a fairly harmless film with a lot of heart. And girth.
7th Feb 2002