It's 1932 England and murder occurs at a remote country estate with a huge amount of guests. Who did it?
The murder doesn't occur until over an hour into the film and, before that, it's pure Altman. Characters talking constantly, LOTS of overlapping dialogue...usually I love his films, but I had a hard time getting into this one. For one thing, all the actors are British (with the sole exceptions of Bob Balaban and Ryan Phillippe--sporting a really stupid Scottish accent) so it's sometimes hard to make it what they're saying. The first hour contained a lot of dialogue that was simply unintelligible. After the first hour, I got a handle on the accents and was able to follow it.
The murder isn't the main focus--it's mostly about class consciousness (servants and the rich people)--nothing new is said but it's all still very interesting. The acting helps immensely.
They have a huge gathering of very good British actors. Emily Watson, in particular, is superb as a very feisty maid. Maggie Smith is, as always, great--but hasn't she played the mean old rich woman once too often? Clive Owen is--interesting. He's certainly good-looking but seems somewhat stiff in his role (although that's how it should be played). The worst acting is easily from Phillippe--get some acting lessons bud!
Also, blessedly, there's no gratuitous female nudity in this film--Altman seems to usually have a thing for having his actresses strip for no good reason--he held back this time. Why this film has an R rating I can't say. No nudity, no sex, the murder is bloodless and there's no swearing. So why the R?
All in all, not top-notch Altman but still pretty good.
The murder doesn't occur until over an hour into the film and, before that, it's pure Altman. Characters talking constantly, LOTS of overlapping dialogue...usually I love his films, but I had a hard time getting into this one. For one thing, all the actors are British (with the sole exceptions of Bob Balaban and Ryan Phillippe--sporting a really stupid Scottish accent) so it's sometimes hard to make it what they're saying. The first hour contained a lot of dialogue that was simply unintelligible. After the first hour, I got a handle on the accents and was able to follow it.
The murder isn't the main focus--it's mostly about class consciousness (servants and the rich people)--nothing new is said but it's all still very interesting. The acting helps immensely.
They have a huge gathering of very good British actors. Emily Watson, in particular, is superb as a very feisty maid. Maggie Smith is, as always, great--but hasn't she played the mean old rich woman once too often? Clive Owen is--interesting. He's certainly good-looking but seems somewhat stiff in his role (although that's how it should be played). The worst acting is easily from Phillippe--get some acting lessons bud!
Also, blessedly, there's no gratuitous female nudity in this film--Altman seems to usually have a thing for having his actresses strip for no good reason--he held back this time. Why this film has an R rating I can't say. No nudity, no sex, the murder is bloodless and there's no swearing. So why the R?
All in all, not top-notch Altman but still pretty good.