Metacritic reviews

The movie is so fun that it wouldn't need the mystery to be top-notch entertainment.

It ranks among Robert Altman's best work ever, and that its many satisfactions derive in large part from a superbly written screenplay by Julian Fellowes that has no equal this year.

A virtuoso ensemble piece to rival the director's "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" in its masterly interweaving of multiple characters and subplots.

At his best, Altman turns us into interlopers who have stumbled into a world that seems to predate us and persuades us it will continue to teem with life long after we leave the theater.

Altman achieves his dream of a truly organic form, in which everyone is connected to everyone else, and life circulates around a central group of ideas and emotions in bristling orbits. [14 Jan 2002, p. 92]

Taking advantage of a splendid cast, a sharply focused script and the fresh English setting, "Gosford Park" emerges as one of the most satisfying of Robert Altman's numerous ensemble pictures.

So deliciously absorbing and well done.

What a relief to see a movie in which an audience responds with peals of laughter to subtle facial shifts as well as punch lines.

A fine, well-groomed entertainment, but the road it takes has already been well paved.

As with Altman's best movies, Gosford Park is above all an entrancing hum of atmosphere and texture.