In Robert Altman's long and storied career, he's made a lot of good movies - "Nashville," "Short Cuts," and "Cookie's Fortune" come to mind. But his latest effort, the Academy Award-nominated "Gosford Park," might be his best effort yet. Released last year, this cinematographic treat was featured in Moscow's film festival last month and is now playing in town.

"Gosford Park" is set in an English country estate of the same name, where British society's creme de la creme has gathered for a weekend party. Lord of the manor Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) hosts, with his wife Lady Sylvia (a pitch-perfect Kristin Scott Thomas), a group including Lady Sylvia's impoverished sisters and their good-for-nothing husbands, Lady Sylvia's haughty but cash-hungry aunt Constance (Maggie Smith) and Hollywood star Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam).

In this beautifully shot feature, Altman is faithful to his signature style, introducing an array of characters and letting them find their places in a complex, puzzle-like plot. You are just as sure to feel lost during the first half of the film as you are to be captivated by its ending. The casting helps distinguish this film from other recent Hollywood offerings: The actors perfectly match their respective characters, and are also talented and fascinating themselves.

Serving the "upstairs" people at the party are the "downstairs" servants, including housekeeper Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren), head maid Elsie (Emily Watson), valets Robert Parks (Clive Owen) and Henry Denton (Ryan Philippe) and the story's narrator, maid Mary Maceachran (Kelly Macdonald). Altman, a sort of Hitchcock of modern Hollywood, has not only mastered the genre of a murder mystery where everyone is suspect, he has surpassed it and broken its limitations. While the luxuries of the aristocratic lifestyle may seem attractive to some, they appear utterly disgusting to most, because Altman openly laughs at the greed, snobbishness and ignorance of some of his characters.