I liked this film more than you did, Steve, though I would make no great claims for it -- it was clearly made by post-Christians trying to play-act Catholic; and it can't hold a candle to the Granada miniseries, which I watched in three days the subsequent week. And I certainly won't deny that in my case the film benefitted from low expectations.
But to address a couple of points in your review:
(1) Whatever the difference from Waugh may be, I don't think changing Charles from agnostic to atheist really matters much -- given the final gesture, and given that he's never evangelical about his atheism (he's arguably more vocally anti-Catholic in the miniseries: the "Bridey, you always cure me of any desire to convert" line, e.g.)
(2) The deathbed conversion of Lord Marchmain remains in the film and has the same powerful effect on Julia. I'll defer to your memory, but I'm pretty sure Sebastian still says he believes the story to be true because good (or some more child-like formulation). So ... no, I don't think you can say grace is gone (sorry) ... thinned down, perhaps.
(3) I don't think the fact that, e.g., Aloysius has his role cut, means that the film skrimps on homosexuality as an immature phase, or arrested development. I at least thought it quite obvious (if again, maybe thinned down) since Whishaw plays Sebastian as a petulant, narcissistic little boi (I'm actually surprised that pro-gay critics, i.e., 90 percent, haven't raised more of a stink over this. Cara's line about the kind of thing English boys do is still there, too.
I do agree that Matthew Goode is rather passive and diffident as Charles (but then I also think the same of Jeremy Irons).

For what is worth, your review of The Terminal doesn't show up today.

I agree with Thomas. Instead of going to see the movie, I decided to just read the book again. I've never even seen the BBC miniseries, and don't really want to. Even if it's a faithful representation of the book, Brideshead is one of the few books I can re-read every few years and I don't want to be reminded of a movie every time I read it.

Thanks for the review.

Saw Brideshead a few weeks ago. It was a decent and very enjoyable film.

That's a good review of Brideshead, SDG. Hopefully, it will strip the scales from the eyes of some people enamored with the film.

Thanks for the review, Steve. Man, I was excited a year or so ago when I heard they were making my second favorite book (behind The Lord of the Rings) into a movie. But everything I've heard about it since is a disappointment.
I probably won't see it for the fear it will mar my memory, and future reading, of the book itself.