The weakest thing about this movie is the script.

Vaughn 2022-04-19 09:01:58

After watching Downton, I watched this film admiringly. To be honest, it feels the same as watching Downton. The screenwriter is good at writing people but not good at writing stories. There are many loopholes in the structure. Although it won an Oscar, it cannot be said that it is a good script. Not all movies need a plot with strong ups and downs, but at least if there is a plot setting, it should be reasonable, especially if the reasoning story is used, there should be no logical loopholes. But the characters in this play are very clever, and what they do lacks inevitable logic. For example, the two late suitors were superfluous, the two policemen were too unprofessional, and there were several servants who were meaningless except to show their faces to disturb the line of sight. It feels like the murder is a hard-boiled tenon, and the housekeeper's murder motive can be summed up with the phrase "I am a perfect servant, knowing everything that will happen". Paros is determined to murder and hides the weapon in advance, where is it? Premeditated murder must find a suitable time and place, and the master went to the study after dinner that day because the maid was fired by accident, so the chance of murder seemed to be made up. In addition, the housekeeper poured coffee and did not tidy up the debris and carpets. Where did the aristocratic rules of this family go?
As for the well-written human nature, in fact, it can be done in a logical and clear narrative of manor life, without necessarily dead people, that is a good script with a perfect structure.
Of course, the actors are really wonderful, and I have to say that the details of the characters' character and status are also well written by the screenwriter, but this movie can't be considered very good.

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Extended Reading

Gosford Park quotes

  • Raymond Stockbridge: [to Louisa] Do stop snivelling - anyone would think you were Italian.

  • [talking about Lady Sylvia]

    Mary Maceachran: What was her family like?

    Elsie: What you'd expect: toffee-nosed and useless. Her father was the Earl of Carton, which sounds good except he didn't have a pot to piss in.