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137 Minutes of Arch Delight
Do you love British dramas? The manners, the clothes, the accents,
the melodrama, and the conversation at tea? If you do, "Gosford
Park" is a film not to be missed. The Robert Altman ensemble
drama is back in form after the scattered "Dr. T & The
Women."
The tagline after-tea murder doesn't occur until
well into the second hour, and truth be told, it doesn't much matter
who killed Sir William McCordle. This movie is about Maggie Smith's
tart quips, Kristen Scott Thomas's crisp evening gowns, the vegetarian
American film producer, and the film star intermingling with the
British upper crust, and the tightly run household where maids and
butlers are addressed by their employer's names, and have sex in
the kitchen. Imagine the horror of not having your own personal
maid. Newcomer Kelly MacDonald steals the show with her wide-eyed
performance as a Mary, personal maid in training. Helen Mirren runs
the manor with tight self-control, and a shapely Emily Watson takes
a bath.
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