Gosford Park (Ensemble mystery, U.S.-U.K., color, R, 2:17)     by Todd McCarthy, Variety Chief Film Critic

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - 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.

A deft blend of the "Upstairs, Downstairs" approach to class-structure analysis and an Agatha Christie murder mystery in which everyone is forced to remain in a big house as a crime is investigated, classy production finds Altman applying his roving, inquisitive style to long-codified material with marked success.

Combination of Yank spontaneity and Brit pedigree will be pleasing to discerning, quality-seeking audiences on both sides of the pond, resulting in robust specialized circuit B.O. that could, with the help of aggressive marketing and strong reviews, cross it over into reasonable general playoff. USA Films is holding domestic release until January following London Film Festival world premiere Nov. 7 and exclusive openings Dec. 26 in New York and Los Angeles.

Surprising as it is to see the iconoclastic Altman stepping into Merchant Ivory territory, the move results in nothing but benefits extending in all directions. Although this first produced screenplay by English actor and TV writer Julian Fellowes, working from an idea by Altman and thesp Bob Balaban, makes its share of barbed observations about Britain's upper classes, the foreign setting effectively removes the sense of derisive condescension that has marred some of Altman's studies of American social groups. At the same time, the literary straitjacket of the microcosmic aristocrats/servants format is cast off by the director's loose and probing light-heartedness, just as the underlying sense of self-loathing that marks many such home-grown English "exposes" of aristocratic excess is happily absent.

Granted, there are so many characters here that one spends a good deal of time trying to sort out who's related to whom, what the pecking order is downstairs, etc. But few directors are as experienced at managing a large ensemble as Altman is, and one can trust that anything we really need to know will emerge sooner or later.

Fellowes' script is set over a cool November weekend at Gosford Park, a grand country house to which Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his glamorous wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas), have invited some intimates for a shooting party. The most prominent family member is her Aunt Constance (Maggie Smith), an imperious grande dame who arrives with her new Irish maid, Mary (Kelly Macdonald).

As far as the servants are concerned, the weekend's chief excitement stems from the presence of matinee idol Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), Sir William's cousin and an enormously successful composer and film star. Accompanying him is Hollywood movie producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) who wants to research English upper-class life for his next picture; tending to Weissman is his shifty valet, Henry (Ryan Phillippe).

One of the prime fascinations of "Gosford Park" is its intense illumination of how the rigid structure of the below-stairs service staff is a mirror of the formality of English society as a whole. One of the filmmakers' most successful gambits is the decision to always place a servant in scenes involving the weekend guests, thereby insuring there's a witness to every development upstairs as well reinforcing the idea of the intimate interrelatedness of the classes

The butler Jennings (Alan Bates) lords it over the men of the household staff, who include waspish first footman George (Richard E. Grant), Sir William's valet Probert (Derek Jacobi) and prissy second footman Arthur (Jeremy Swift). The stiffly schoolmarmish Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren) is the housekeeper in charge of all the maids, chief among them the lively and observant Elsie (Emily Watson). The aloof Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins) runs the busy kitchen. Other visiting servants include Robert Parks (Clive Owen), a bookish loner whose briefly mentioned orphanage upbringing opens up a Pandora's box for several people in the house.

"We've all got something to hide," Probert correctly observes prior to the story's pivotal event, 80 minutes in -- the murder of Sir William. In self-consciously cheeky fashion, pic shows a shadowy figure in muddy shoes making its way into the patriarch's study and stabbing him at his desk, although it's not entirely clear that Sir William wasn't already dead before the assault

Although Sir William was a disagreeable chap, the motives anyone might have had to murder him are obscure, except, perhaps, for Lady Sylvia's brother-in-law, Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander), desperate over having been squeezed out of a financial deal with the old man. Otherwise, everyone, from the servants to the venerable Constance, who urgently needs her regular allowance, would seem too reliant upon Sir William's largesse to sacrifice it to resentment.

It turns out that those responsible are in plain view and do have strong reasons for their actions, but they remain beyond the investigative powers of the police inspector (Stephen Fry). Waving his pipe about and airily asking insipid questions, character reps a cardboard sendup unlike anything else in the picture and doesn't really work. Altman's overall approach to the melodramatic conventions prevailing here is to embrace them lightly as a means to his own analytical ends; dismissing the inspector as a clueless buffoon seems too easy

From a dramatic and a physical standpoint, everything in the picture is designed to point up the interconnectedness of the household; few films have ever taken so much trouble to show how a house like this actually worked in all its specifics. A composite of a couple of different homes as well as sets, Gosford Park is a virtual maze of public spaces and small private rooms. While the above-stairs areas are evocatively decorated, it's below stairs where production designer Stephen Altman really shines, having created a wonderfully complex environment that's a mysterious world unto itself. Costumes by Jenny Beavan are uncommonly detailed, while constantly roving and reframing widescreen camerawork by Andrew Dunn imparts unusually impressionistic textures for a period piece, a sense furthered by the dense sound mix.

Smith is the starriest of the scene-stealers, knowing just how to maximize her opportunities as a haughty old snoot who can still protest with absolute conviction, "Me, I haven't a snobbish bone in my body!" Even more impressive, in a way, is Mirren's repressed Wilson, a woman who has covered deep sorrow and regret by building absolute authority in her domain, followed closely by Atkins' similarly channeled Croft, Watson's Elsie and Owen's Robert.

Grant and Swift supply all the innuendo they can to more one-dimensional parts, and Northam delivers a smoothly appealing Novello. But Phillippe's opportunistic Henry, who is unconvincingly positioned as Weissman's "boy" in more ways than one, never pays off as a real character.

Score reps a pleasing blend of original orchestral work by Patrick Doyle and eight Novello tunes nicely crooned by Northam.

Mrs. Croft ...................... Eileen Atkins
Morris Weissman ................. Bob Balaban
Jennings ........................ Alan Bates
Raymond, Lord Stockbridge ....... Charles Dance
Inspector Thompson .............. Stephen Fry
Sir William McCordle ............ Michael Gambon
George .......................... Richard E. Grant
Lt. Commander Anthony Meredith .. Tom Hollander
Probert ......................... Derek Jacobi
Mary Maceachran ................. Kelly Macdonald
Mrs. Wilson ..................... Helen Mirren
Ivor Novello .................... Jeremy Northam
Robert Parks .................... Clive Owen
Henry Denton .................... Ryan Phillippe
Constance, Countess of Trentham . Maggie Smith
Louisa, Lady Stockbridge ........ Geraldine Somerville
Lady Sylvia McCordle ............ Kristin Scott Thomas
Dorothy ......................... Sophie Thompson
Elsie ........................... Emily Watson
The Hon. Freddie Nesbitt ........ James Wilby
Isobel McCordle ................. Camilla Rutherford
Mabel Nesbitt ................... Claudie Blakley
Lady Lavinia Meredith ........... Natasha Wightman
Bertha .......................... Teresa Churcher
Arthur .......................... Jeremy Swift
Constable Dexter ................ Ron Webster

A USA Films release presented in association with Capitol Films and the Film Council of a Sandcastle 5 production in association with Chicagofilms and Medusa Film. (International sales: Capitol Films, London.) Produced by Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, David Levy. Executive producers, Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Robert Jones, Hannah Leader. Co-producers, Jane Frazer, Joshua Astrachan.

Directed by Robert Altman. Screenplay, Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman, Bob Balaban. Camera (Technicolor, Panavision widescreen), Andrew Dunn; editor, Tim Squyres; music, Patrick Doyle; production designer, Stephen Altman; supervising art director, John Frankish; art director, Sarah Hauldren; set decorator, Anna Pinnock; costume designer, Jenny Beavan; sound (Dolby), Peter Glossop; supervising sound editor, Nigel Mills; associate producer, Fellowes; assistant director, Richard Styles; casting, Mary Selway. Reviewed at USA Films screening room, Oct. 24, 2001. (In London Film Festival, opening night.)