Throwback Thursday-Gosford Park (2001)

I don't really want to make this a long post, so I will get right to the point. Today won't be a full-on review, because this movie is over 10 years old, but I do want to kind of convince you to try it out since it's one of my all-time favorite movies. Firstly, a little bit about the movie:

Summary from IMDB:

"Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707/

"Gosford Park" is a quintessentially Robert Altman film that follows in the footsteps of "Mansfield Park" and, more to the point, "Upstairs Downstairs", but really is its own beast. Altman was one that didn't dwell on the small details, he was more about capturing the soul of the moment. His movies always were made with lots of ad-libbing from the principles and essentially the art of the conversation. Sure there is a murder mystery involved which serves as the "plot" to drive the story (or really stories) and ensure that no one leaves while the various storylines (that mostly revolve around motive) play out, but it is the conversations between the various characters that really defines the narrative. What's kind of cool is that it is almost entirely shown from the servant's perspective. There is ALWAYS a servant around listening.

What I absolutely love about "Gosford Park" is that nothing is blatantly spelled out for the audience. Everything comes down to gestures, stretches of silence, reading between the lines, and snide, under-handed remarks. You have numerous storylines that twist and turn around each other that sometimes relate one to another and sometimes do not. They all play out well and without leaving a bunch of loose ends. Sure, some are left for the viewer to fill in the blanks, but that's intentional. Especially because, even though I've seen the movie probably 15 times, every time I see it, I make new connections and epiphanies as to what is really going on. It's hard to even keep track of who's who (since the servants are mostly called by the name of their "upstairs" counterpart) and how they are related to each other in the first viewing, but it gets much easier on repeated viewings. The writer of the movie (who won an Oscar for this) is who writes "Downton Abbey" so if you like that, you might really like this movie.

The actors are all superb. Many you know well like Maggie Smith (Prof. McGonagall!), Ryan Phillipe, Helen Mirren (Queen Elizabeth II), Clive Owen (who shoulda been Bond), and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore!); others like Charles Dance (Tywin), Tom Hollander (Pirates movies), and Bob Balaban (several Wes Anderson and Christopher Guest films) you'll go "Hey! It's that guy that was in that thing with...". Then there's the people that must only be famous in England. Still, they all are great in their respective roles. No one stands out as particularly bad, though Phillipe is out of his depth with the rest of the cast.

I really don't have much more to say about it. Watch it and see for yourself. If you don't like it, sorry to have wasted your time, but if you like tight scripts with lots of dialogue and don't mind a movie where nothing really "happens" other than conversations, then see it.

Damn, now I'm going to have to watch it AGAIN...

The Devil's Double

Here's a movie that's been out for a while (it's streaming on Netflix now), but I just got around to seeing it last night. Basically it follows the "true story" of Latif Yahia who was a childhood friend of Uday Hussein (Saddam's eldest son) whom Uday forces to be his body double for dangerous public appearances during the original Gulf War. And let the hilarity commence! No, actually, it's a drama punctuated by some action, a few funny moments, a few gruesome scenes, and several scenes of nudity (both male and female). I think I can get away with this one pretty spoiler free, so feel free to read it before watching.


The Devil's Double (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270262/

Technical (4.5) - Pretty well done for approximately an $18 million budget. It has a little bit of that independent feel, but that's what it is: an independent. The director, Lee Tamahori, is used to bigger budget action movies like "Along Came A Spider", "Die Another Day", and "XXX: State of the Union" which makes it so refreshing that he can do so well here. The sets just show how extravagant the Husseins lived without being too over the top, the music and props are all time appropriate (that's really how you know which war this is during early on), and the doubling of Dominic Cooper (and the man who plays Saddam), who plays both Uday and Latif,  is done almost seemlessly. I have to dock a half point for a little bit of an editing issue concerning a cut to a wedding that leaves you in the "Where did this come from? Who are these people?" mode for a bit. Sure this could have been a screenplay issue, but I think it was edited that way for time. That half a point also is for a scene where the seemless doubling is wrecked for a frame or two. It still is remarkably done in such a low budget film, considering just a few years ago, one of the two would stick out like a sore thumb as "added" or the whole scene was done so the two never touched or crossed paths. Here they do and in a very real and believable way.

Dialogue/Story (3) - Since it is a supposed "real" story (allegedly, since it has been contested) you can't really dock too much for it being fairly formulaic in it's setup, it is still fairly well presented. The dialogue is somewhat predictable for the most part, but does have some bright points where it doesn't go quite as you expect. I mean, this concept has been a subplot of many movies as the villain tries to dupe someone, but rarely does it show it in a realistic sense like here. Everyone behaves in a fairly rational manner (except Uday, who is not just psychotic, as Latif calls him, but a clear sociopath) and speaks in pretty logical terms.

Acting (4) - Here's where the movie shines and also falters a bit. This is clearly Dominic Cooper's movie. He creates such a dichotomy of the two characters. It isn't just the dialogue or script. Their mannerisms, speech patterns, and facial expressions are completely different. They kinda added a hair gimmick to it to help you know who was who, but it really wasn't necessary. They look alike, but they don't act alike. I didn't know Howard Stark had it in him, but he really is a terrific young actor! I had to dock another point for most of the rest of the cast. They're...ok. His adviser is decent, as is Saddam, and the stylist, but other than that they're all just meh. Not so bad that you roll your eyes at the laugh-ability, but not good enough that they're entirely believable all the time.

Tilt (5) - I really enjoyed the movie. I love movies with a really good strong performance by someone I'm not really expecting it from. Also, I like how it shows some of the crap that was going on over there and justifies us disposing of that family, no matter what the reasons we went there for were. It isn't going to cost you a dime to see it, so please do!!!

Total Score (4.13)