(15, 85mins): Starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Rupert Everett, Hermione Norris. Directed by Julian Fellowes.

As Julian Fellowes demonstrated in his Oscar-winning screenplay for Gosford Park, he has a rare gift for stitching together multi-layered narratives and a sharp eye for the foibles and eccentricities of the privileged classes.

For his directorial debut, Fellowes chooses to adapt Nigel Balchins novel A Way Through The Wood, a provocative study of corrupted ideals and infidelity originally penned in 1951.

Updated to the present day and refashioned as a crime drama, Separate Lies poses a series of moral dilemmas which never truly grip us, though the film's central tenet - that we are deeply-flawed, self-serving creatures - strikes a universal chord.

Anne Manning (Watson) and her businessman husband James (Wilkinson) seem to have the perfect marriage. He commutes every day to his high-powered, well-paid job as an international lawyer while she looks after their sprawling country mansion, aided by cleaning lady Maggie (Bassett).

But when Maggie's husband is killed in a hit-and-run accident, James suspects newcomer Bill Bule (Everett) may have been the driver.

Wilkinson powerfully conveys his character's frustration and desperation, contrasting with Watson's low-key portrayal of a trophy wife willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

With a cheerier tone and a comedy sergeant to accompany Inspector Marshall, Separate Lies has all the makings of a solid episode of Midsomer Murders - right down to the plot contrivances.