Gosford Park

You might need a program to keep track of the two dozen-plus characters in Robert Altman's Oscar-nominated soap opera, murder, mystery, and chamber comedy-of-manners--but it's worth it. Carpeted with dry wit and filled to the rafters with salacious secrets and unspoken animosity, Gosford Park takes place at an English country estate in 1932 and unfolds from two points of view--above stairs, where a multitude of aristocrats size each other up in subtle sociological war games, and below stairs, where their gossipy maids and valets fall into a strict pecking order based upon whom they serve. The incredible cast includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Richard E. Grant, Clive Owen and Stephen Fry. Highly recommended. [Note: The "Collector's Edition" DVD serves up a slew of wonderful extras including: two separate scene-specific commentaries with director Robert Altman and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes; 20 minutes of deleted scenes with commentary by Altman and Fellowes; a 20-minute "making of" featuring production crew and the extensive cast (Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, etc.); a 25-minute cast & crew Q&A (with Altman, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Bob Balaban and others); and a wonderful nine-minute featurette on Gosford Park's "authenticity" featuring various "downstairs" advisers (including the "parlour maid technical adviser"). Bottom line: An excellent extras package for a highly acclaimed film.] (R. Blackwelder) [Blu-ray Review—Dec. 11, 2018—Arrow, 131 min., R, Blu-ray: $34.99—Making its debut on Blu-ray, 2001’s Gosford Park features a fine transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Extras include three audio commentaries (one by cinema programmer Geoff Andrew and film critic David Thomson; another by director Robert Altman, his son Stephen Altman, and producer David Levy; and the last by writer-producer Julian Fellowes), a cast and filmmaker Q&A (25 min.), interviews with executive producer Jane Barclay (21 min.) and costar Natasha Wightman (11 min.), deleted scenes (20 min.), a 'making-of' featurette (20 min.), and a segment on 'The Authenticity of Gosford Park' (9 min.). Bottom line: Altman’s Oscar-winning upper-crust murder mystery shines on Blu-ray.]