Rating: 
Summary: Nice but abbreviated script rescued by superb acting.
Review: Five stars for the cast and director, three for the screenwriter, producer, or whoever decided to cram so much fine plot and talent into so little time.The authors of the really dismal reviews of this movie should stick to light Hollywood R-rated tripe with DiCaprio, Costner, Masden, Griffith, Nolte et al. This is a different ballpark. Gosford Park is an excellent period portrayal of British stratified society in which the murder is a minor detail.
If you don't like British period material such as Jane Austen, avoid this movie. In partial defense of several of the reviewers, this seriously compressed while intriguing script fails to develop characters in sufficient detail, renders the mini-plots incompletely explored and frustratingly shortened.
It will leave you wishing for the other two hours that should have been used to produce a blockbuster resulting from the superb acting by the excellently chosen cast. You get the impression you have watched a chubby trailer for a great movie that may be presented sometime next year.
Most of the many major, first line actors and actresses, particularly Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Cristen Scott Thomas, and an almost unrecognizably tragic Helen Mirren, brilliantly portray their characters as best they could with such brief opportunities to display their skills.
It takes great acting and direction to capture such superb portrayals in 'takes' and snapshot scenes, measured many times in seconds. Altman and his cast have done it. It's a pity there is no novel on which the movie was based so one could read the book and get the rest of the varied and interesting stories and character development. Perhaps the screenwriter will favor us with a complete expansion of the compressed movie script as a complete novel. The acting, external and internal sets, photography and music are stunning.
Buy it and watch it all the way through again and again, finding more beautifully executed detail each time. This is a winner. I taped it from STARZ presentation, watched it repeatedly, and then purchased the DVD to own a copy of the visually stunning effects and sound.
Rating: 
Summary: A delightful evening spent
Review: I really enjoyed the characters and story. I feel that there is not enough movies out there that look into a story like this one did. It had witty dialogue and wonderful actors.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointed!
Review: The story was fine. This is very much a 30s Agatha Christie type movie from the servants' view. However, I had a difficult time understanding much of the conversation. In the comments section of the DVD, this was explained as a deliberate action in order to recreate more of the servants' perspective. I thought the technique was ineffective.
Rating:
Summary: Nashville meets Remains of the Day: Watch it 50 times
Review: Robert Altman uses his multi-character, overlapping story style that we loved in Nashville, to make a homage to the Merchant-Ivory style of English movie. I say "homage" because it's not a parody. Altman shot the scenes with very many characters talking at once, often with multiple cameras. The result is convincingly realistic, although the sound quality is often maddeningly muffled and the dialog is difficult to pick up through the various British accents. The casting is fabulous, and Maggie Smith as the witheringly sharp-tongued dowager is the best. But close behind is Ryan Philippe's impression of an American doing and impression of a Scottish accent deserves an academy award. You'll need to own this on DVD as you'll watch it 50 times before you catch all the dialog--you'll love it more with each viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful, tedious and pointless
Review: Any critic who gave this a good review misstakes a British accent for acting. Folks going through the motion in a dull and silly movie.
Rating:
Summary: This is why the DVD format was invented
Review: I went to see this movie at the theater and I will readily admit that I was completely baffled by the critical acclaim it received. I rented the DVD recently because I was going to give it another chance (well I was going to see what was it I was missing that so many other were seeing) When I fired up the DVD I decided to listen to the writer's comments. That transformed this film into a remarkable experience. So much so I will be buying it to add to my collection. The details and inticacies of the film and the story come alive as I listen to the writer explain how this story unfolds. I know many will say that well the movie should be able to stand on its on and in a lot of ways it does. But listening to the writer answer all the question I had in mind and even more was such a delight. I recommend getting this movie on DVD just for that reason alone. There are even more features that I did not get a chance to explore that I am sure will make it even better. I highly recommend seeing this film!
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment at its Best
Review: The collector's edition DVD of Gosford Park provides comments by Altman and writer, Julian Fellowes as well as documentary on filming the film, out takes and filmography data. Fellowes comments, however, are wonderful insight to the history of English country house weekends, the arrogance of classism in British social history, as well as providing delightful rememberances of the author's own relations from whom he drew heavily developing his characters. This is a film of seamless performances from every actor and underscores the strength of theatrical training in the British system over Hollywood's studio celebrity system. A little bit Agetha Christie, but not really, the story of a dismal weekend in the country is made all the better by Altman's direction, or ability to direct without interference in his actor's performances. Stellar performances include Maggie Smith (Prime of Miss Jean Brody), delightful as the Countess without a pot to p*#s in, Michael Gambon (The Singing Detective), the victim of greedy in-laws and dog-haters, Jeremy Northam as Ivor Novello delivers blissful musical entertainment to guests and audience alike, Emily Watson (Metroland) demonstrates why she is one of the best young actors working today, and Helen Mirren and Clive Owen are mysterious players in the upstairs-downstairs dilemma. The depth of cast talent is akin to an archaeology dig, it just keeps getting better as time passes. Gosford Park is a film that makes film watching a pleasure. In the hands of excellent players, a director who knows how to stage shots, and with a screen play that is both witty and informed, the audience can't loose. This is one of the best films of the year, it should be included in every film buff's library.
Rating:
Summary: Meager story + Foul Characters = Unsatisfying film.
Review: My gripes with this touted film: 1) One of Altman's most pointless, inaccessible films.
If the sheer pointlessness of the proceedings hasn't occurred to you before you reach the closing credits, then we have lived on different planets all our lives. The story is nothing so much as a mass of trivial detail. If the characters had cores, if they did something major that pushed the story one direction or another, everything in Gosford Park would be welcomed as rounding or coloring character. It would be masterful. But as coloring or flavoring is all that happens in a film about basically anonymous, unappealing characters, it adds up to pure piffle.
2) Dislikable characters, some intensely so.
Perhaps the fact that they are all creeps ameliorates the fact we never get to know them. But I am not sure this narrative fault is so easily converted to a virtue. Hitchcock said a dislikable lead was the kiss of death to any film. (Same as a weak villain.) He was at pains throughout his long career to find leading actors with whom the audience could identify. Then, if the scenario should fail in spots, the "known quantity" of a Cary Grant or James Stewart would insure continued audience involvement in the meantime. I am certain Altman's adherants consider him Hitchcock's better; but truly, Altman could have learned a make or break lesson from Hitchcock here, i. e. You have to WORK to make the audience CARE. Even great artists do. Honest. This is apparently the Emperor's New Movie for the new Millenium, an atrocity no one who is at all image-conscious will renounce publicly. I guess artists reach a point of respectability where no one will say "This stinks." Critics, remembering his career triumphs such as Vertigo, Rear Window, Strangers On A Train and Psycho, would not say Frenzy was less than top drawer Hitchcock. --Not the auteur critics, not the quick turn around tabloid critics. There was too much warm feeling for the director's past. I see this as being what "saved" this film from being savaged and tossed on Altman's disaster heap, alongside Cookie's Fortune. It is competently made, no question. I just wish something had happened in the film.
Rating:
Summary: A Huge Disappointment
Review: This movie was interesting from the trailers when advertised. I love a good murder mystery, however this was not one. It dwelt more on the upstairs/downstairs way of British life instead of the murder. The murder didnt even occur until more than halfway through the movie which made for a slowgoing plotline. I was very bored with it and except for a very select few good one liners this was a huge disappointment for me. It's only for those who enjoy reliving the British way of life back in the 20's & 30's, which I find quite boring.
Rating:
Summary: Painful to sit through
Review: I'm not about to cower in awe of what so-called "critics think. As quite an eclectic connosieur of film I found this one lacking in most everything except cinematography. But even that doesn't save this film which literally put me to sleep. My only motivation for staying awake was the gnawing belief that surely at some point a plot would finally emerge to justify enduring the lack thereof heretofore. But it finally dawned on me as the credits rolled that I had been had. What I don't understand is why the critics or Alton think that sitting through hours of watching people, one would barely tolerate in real life, chat about nothing for 2 hours constitutes an important film or even entertainment for that matter. And I happen to like good English film. But if I am to give up 2 hours of my life, I just think there should be a point.
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