Customer Ratings & Reviews

If you're a huge downton abbey fan this will be right up your alley. Who doesn't love a fun murder mystery with some upscale aristocrats, directed by a master storyteller?

I really found this to be one of the best and most stylish British mystery movies of all time.

Opulent 1930s period piece set an English manor house. Wealth of extras is keeping with ARROW Video's standards.

I'm glad to see Arrow handle Altman titles. This one arrived in perfect condition.

A great murder mystery with lots if stars and a great finish

Great cast, no amazing cast, and great writing without the soap opera cliches of Downton Abbey

Robert Altman created a particular type of realism with films such as MASH, Nashville and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. People talk at the same time. You drop strands of the plot and pick them up later. There is something very "wild west" about his style. You wouldn't expect it to work in an English country house in the 1930s. But it does. A beautiful country home is the setting for a weekend party. The guests come as do their servants. Both groups have to fit in. It isn't always easy. There are telling moments such as the easy snobbery of what those born to wealth display toward the nouveau riche and the members of the entertainment industry in their midst. Some of these are very subtle such as the fact that there is always a servant present. They are barely noticed by the people they wait on -- they might as well be part of the furnishings. The mystery doesn't matter. It's simply a device to hang a plot on. What matters are the textures and personalities. There were two annoyances for me. Stephen Fry (whom I love) played a toadying policeman who came across as a caricature. Perhaps that was the point -- emphasizing how badly he fit in. It didn't work for me. Kelly MacDonald played Mary, one of the servants. Mary is a central character but the actress was outclassed by all the talented performers around her. Despite that, this is a lovely film.

Sporting an ensemble cast with very witty dialogue and wonderful direction by Robert Altman, Gosford Park is just one of many of the filmmaker's great films. I only wish the blu-ray was anywhere near as good as the film within it. First of all, there's no menu which proves to be an immediate nuisance because it defaults to the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track instead of the DTS-MA 5.1 one. Speaking of the audio, it is such an obvious, and poorly done, remix of a stereo track as, though there is plenty of ancillary dialogue around all the time, the rear channels are never used. More problematic, the center channel is also poorly implemented leaving dialogue often muddled. The source is obviously from an old DVD master as the video is quite lifeless without any fine detail to speak of. Some print damage is evident periodically in the form of white specs. Thankfully, the vast majority of the film takes place within the mansion, because exterior shots are even worse looking with plenty of edge enhancement creating a blurry mess. There are no extras included. If you already own the DVD, there is really no reason to upgrade to this blu-ray and I would very much suggest you wait and hope for a proper release. However, the film is so good that if you haven't had the pleasure of watching it yet, I would recommend you pick it up immediately.

Gosford Park is a Drama that hides trying to be a mystery. Being that it is not a mystery and that they really don't hide anything from anyone this is a bad movie in my book. A dinner party in London shows the servants side of things and the rich people’s side of things. That is all interesting, but with there being so many characters and the fact that they had to go out of their way to define each one makes the movie really long and boring. It is 137 minutes long and before anything real happens you are about an hour and a half in. If you enjoy dinner parties but don't get to go to them it might be something fun to have on in the background.