Oh yeah, Bob Balaban was killer, too.
The sound mix was probably exactly the way Altman wanted it. Ever since MASH, he’s experimented with over-lapping dialogue, sound fading, etc. He’s often concerned more with the rhythm and flow of conversation than with the actual content. This serves his purposes particularly well in Gosford Park in which the viewer is intended to share in the newly-arrived servant’s confusion.
I, for one, absolutely loved this movie (as I do most Altman flicks, 3 Women excepted) and felt it deserved to win best picture instead of that tripe A Beatiful Mind.
…
AHAHHAHA.
I only had problems with a few lines, but I agree the movie was pretty lousy. “Character study?” Not really. Altman’s movies suck almost as much as the man himself does.
I really liked it a lot. I appreciate movies that make you work a little. It definitely wasn’t your typical Hollywood movie where they lay everything out very, very clearly because they apparently think your average viewer is a slow third-grader. I agree that the murder was a total McGuffin, but, hey, I’m willing to put up with that.
I’ve read like everything ever written by Christie and Wodehouse; my husband is a working-class Pittsburgh boy who would rather read S.J. Gould. He was a little clueless about why one would travel with one’s lady’s maid or what the hell it was a valet did. The movie taught him that the relationship between a servent and master at that time and place was much more complicated and less egalitarian than a 2002 relationship between an office worker and the cleaning lady. He liked it, but had a hard time following and picking up on the subtleties.
I fucking adored it as much as I adored MASH and Nashville. I took Bob Balabian’s character to be less a period piece and more a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of any Hollywood film type- such as Robert Altman himself. A nice bit of self-satire.
Kipper, we do find out exactly who does it. 
Just watched it over the weekend, and firstly, a big thanks to the one who suggested watching with closed captioning on. We did and it helped a lot with understanding the dialogue. I really enjoyed the movie, but I don’t think my daughter enjoyed it as much as I. This is somewhat surprising as I’m not much of an Altman fan. LOL I did find the character interaction quite good. So many of the lines of dialogue were also either whispered or said very low (or maybe not close enough to the boom mike? or maybe it was supposed to be that way), so the closed captioning was very much a boon to understanding there.
I thought all the actors did a superb job; I really enjoy period pieces. 
tarragon
I liked it a lot, and think it was more derserving of Best Film Oscar than that horrible, factually inaccurate mess, “Beautiful Mind.”
(Actually, I was rooting for Lord Of The Rings to win.)
I really liked the whole visual and cultural experience of getting a glimpse into how life was in during that period. But then again, I also like to occasionaly watch those 8 hour PBS film versions of the classics.
I think you have to be in the mood.
I told my friends to wait for the dreary, rainy day…get comfortable on the sofa, pull the blanket up to your nose and just let the film go by and tell its story.