Tuesday’s Movie for Folding Laundry: Gosford Park

I’m starting a new feature over here at Mom on the Run Chronicles: Tuesday’s Movie for Folding Laundry. I’m going to attempt to place the movies I review in some sort of sidebar. Wish me luck…love my blogging, but find website design a little taxing.

The movies I choose will be ones that are perfect to watch while you are folding laundry. I don’t know about you, but I fold when my laundry is stacked in Leaning Tower of Pisa style piles. One of my children will ask hopefully about a hooded sweatshirt, another will need shorts for volleyball. It is only then that I descend to my laundry room and lug the overflowing baskets to the TV area. Once I have cleared away the Barbies, stuffed animals, puzzle pieces, and dress-up clothes. I. Am. Ready.

Folding laundry is not my favorite activity. The household task I hate more? Ironing Shirts. I. Am. Not. A. Domestic. Goddess.

When I fold laundry I need a movie with either lots of action to be keep me watching or a movie heavy on plot. I’m trapped in the basement for at least 45 minutes to an hour and need something to keep my attention.

Our First Feature on Tuesday’s Movie for Folding Laundry

Gosford Park

From imdb.com:
Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) is a wealthy but uncouth industrialist-turned-aristocrat, with a large house in the English countryside, complete with staff. It is a world where everything runs in order – both upstairs, where Sir William and his much younger wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) indulge in a very comfortable existence of shooting, dinners and parties, and downstairs, where the servants work endlessly under the command of the butler Mr. Jennings (Alan Bennett), and the house keeper Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren). Whether they like it or not, everyone knows their place. But a shooting party will change all of that, with friends of the McCordles and their servants arriving from outside to upset the order. And so begins a complicated tale of secrets, lies, deceit, betrayal, revenge, bitterness, hatred, money and love – and that’s all before the murder.

Who doesn’t like a spot of murder? Some of my all-time favorite films involve, murder. Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, Pulp Fiction. On the outside I’m a mild-mannered (?) SAHM turned writer, but on the inside I would love to be a forensic analyst. I love a good mystery.

Gosford Park has a dazzling cast of players. Some are stage actors (Derek Jacobi), a few like Ryan Phillippe are known on the big screen. A few have faces that you think you might recognize, but cannot quite place (Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen). All in all a great cast. The story line is good as well. Just enough mix of the downstairs servants and upstairs aristocrats to be interesting. For those used to fast-paced action films, this would not be your best bet, but as a movie to pass the time while doing a repetitive task like folding. Gosford Park is a winner.