It’s a rainy, overcast day in November 1932. Gosford Park is being taken over by a chaotic arrival of upper-class guests who bring their attendants in tow. Because a lady without a lady’s maid is not respected, correct?

Although the servants are asked to take the surname of their masters, the social hierarchy in Gosford Park is distinctly drawn yet scandalously blurred. Men sit with cigars after their ladies are “dismissed,” servants carry a hierarchy within their own class, and a shooting party turns into a real killing–of the head of the household. While his wife is sleeping with one of the guests’ servants, he has been sleeping with one of their servants, and the question turns more to who isn’t in bed with whom.

Sir William was murdered in the study with a knife. It could’ve been anyone, but since the audience hasn’t been able to keep the names of the characters straight, much less learn about them, the suspect remains a mystery. A few characters are distinguishable, such as Ryan Phillippe’s role as the watchful, mischievous attendant and Isabella, the frizzy-haired daughter of Sir William, who is also having an affair (giving new meaning to the term “family affair”). However, by the time the faces on the screen have matched up with their names, the movie has come to its conclusion with little sympathy for anyone.

The setting tells a story all in its own, with the upper class guests living above the stairs and their lower servants below the stairs (this is also how the credits are categorized at the end of the film). Yet the dialogue is thick with English and Scottish accents that blur together and the story relies on stagnant action to further the plot.

Hairstyles separate the overtly sexual Isabella from the uptight older women, with their tight blonde curls staying close to their head. But most of the characters hide behind their social class, leaving the pretentious facades in the daytime and breaking all hierarchical rules in the dark.

The meaning behind the film can best be summed up by a remark from Elsie, the servant who is fired because of her affair with Sir William: “Why do we spend our lives living through them?”

Because “them,” the higher class, are just as sinful as those who live below the stairs.