A weekend on the countryside for the English upper class turns sour when their host ends up dead. Of course, the death of the host actually happens more than halfway into the film, so it is VERY SLOW GOING until then. And then, assuming the audience has been paying attention, to them it is reveled the who and the why. Although it remains a mystery to all but 3 of the large number of characters.

The film really criticizes the upper class. The only likeable characters in the entire film are the servants.

I watched it because I had read somewhere that the music was quite good. And yes, a very good song is featured: "The Land of Might-Have-Been". But other than that (and perhaps the funny "And Her Mother Came Too"), the music, while beautiful, is entirely relegated to the background, and doesn't play a significant part in the movie. The mystery plot is the point of the movie, but it takes a long while to get there.

Gosford Park was a damn good mystery. It explored some really interesting themes with the 1930s British class system and is essentially a prototype of Downton Abbey, at least at the start. It was somewhat difficult to keep up with who was who at first because the cast is huge but you get plenty of time to learn about everybody and possible motives well before the actual mystery starts. There's just so many interweaving subplots and it all flows so well together, it's really impressive.

This is one of those movies with great ingredients (great director, great cast, great setting) but the movie just never takes off.
If it weren't for the famous faces, you couldn't possibly remember who's who.

While rewatching this movie, I thought “jeez, this is like if Robert Altman directed a bad episode of Downton Abbey.” And then I realized that that’s exactly what this is: Altman directed and Julian Fellowes wrote it.

Great cast and interesting insight into the 30's upper-class world, but the pace and investigation are really poor. When the credits rolled up, I felt like I'd been deprived of a conclusion. A lot of storylines end up useless and/or unfinished.

I'm absolutely positive that this only gets good reviews because of the amount of British acting "royalty" present.
It's unbelievably dull. Nothing happens.
Nowt.
Zip.
Zilch.
Nada.
Go watch Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-75) or Downton Abbey (2010-15 & 2019).
Fuck me, You Rang M'Lord was better than this shit.

Hilarious. And then a moment of loss and great acting.

What a terrible boring movie!

So rich of characters and full of subplots and gossip, quite the fix for Downton Abbey's nostalgia indeed