A superior slice of Agatha Christie inspired whimsy featuring a veritable who’s who of British acting, Gosford Park is a considerably more conventional murder-mystery/comedy of manners than one might have expected from an habitual genre-bender like Robert Altman.

The plot (or at least some of it) runs thus: On a November weekend in 1932 new-moneyed lecherous lord Sir William (Gambon) and his missus Lady Sylvia (Scott-Thomas) invite friends and relatives to their Home Counties country estate for a shooting party. Among the guests are a Hollywood film producer and the film star/singer Ivor Novello (Northam). Meanwhile, downstairs, the guests’ servants gather, including inquisitive maid Mary (MacDonald) and surly valet Parks (Owen). When one of the guests is murdered, Mary’s investigation uncovers all manner of indiscretions and red herrings, before leading her inexorably to the truth.

A mannered English country home murder-mystery may seem a shockingly unlikely prospect from Robert Altman – a man who prior to his filmmaking days used to spend his lunch-breaks downing fifths of scotch and attempting to live the high life. Yet surprisingly Gosford Park is far from revolutionary, although it doesn’t include the kind of “Colonel Mustard in the pantry with a golf club” revelation which invariably acts as denouement in this particular oeuvre, an omission which some may find frustrating.

What raises the film though, above the level of Sunday evening upstairs/downstairs period costume viewing is its fantastically superior cast with Maggie Smith in particular, outstanding as a fearsome Lady Bracknell-style countess. Also impressive is the way Altman adapts his signature “eavesdropping” use of sound for flitting between the aristocrats and their idle chatter or the servants and their gossip.

Certainly then this is no La Règle Du Jeu, but it’s a quality production and the best film Altman has made in several years. Beats the hell out of last year’s Dr. T And The Women at any rate.