Had never heard of this until a friend recommended it to me. A stacked cast of Brits all getting together for a good ole whodunnit? Yeah, I'm game. As far as mysteries go, this feels like it was taken straight from the pages of Agatha Christie. At least I imagine it does, I've never actually read one of her books. There's wit and charm and sophisticated classism oozing out of every frame.
Where this loses me is in the pacing. This feels soooooo slow to me. The first hour was a struggle to stay awake through as they introduce character after character and all the little intricacies of the relationships. My problem is that I end up comparing this heavily with the more recent Knives Out and where Johnson added flare and quirk to the cast of Knives, Gosford feels very flat and monotone. It's so dry and one note the whole way through that things started to turn into just noise, like listening to Charlie Brown's parents.
I still think this is a solid movie, I'm just not sure it's for me. The pacing really made this a tough experience and the overall drudgery made it difficult for me to get invested but I can see the cleverness, the intricate web of layers being weaved. When the credits rolled I felt like I was glad to have watched it, intellectually, but I don't know that I'd ever feel compelled to visit it again.
Where this loses me is in the pacing. This feels soooooo slow to me. The first hour was a struggle to stay awake through as they introduce character after character and all the little intricacies of the relationships. My problem is that I end up comparing this heavily with the more recent Knives Out and where Johnson added flare and quirk to the cast of Knives, Gosford feels very flat and monotone. It's so dry and one note the whole way through that things started to turn into just noise, like listening to Charlie Brown's parents.
I still think this is a solid movie, I'm just not sure it's for me. The pacing really made this a tough experience and the overall drudgery made it difficult for me to get invested but I can see the cleverness, the intricate web of layers being weaved. When the credits rolled I felt like I was glad to have watched it, intellectually, but I don't know that I'd ever feel compelled to visit it again.