Intelligent, well-scripted, well-performed period piece.

Anthony Hopkins is an extremely accomplished actor. There, one sentence in and I'm already stating the obvious. But every now and again, an actor already known as accomplished will turn in a performance so outstanding, so perfect that it casts a light over his or her past accomplishments. With this film, Anthony Hopkins turned in that performance.

That's not to denigrate the other performers in this piece -quite the opposite in fact, this is an ensemble piece so intelligently played that it's hard to imagine how it could be bettered. But it is Hopkins film - he carries it from the realms of the merely excellent into the superlative.

"Remains of the day" (there's no initial "The") is based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, himself a highly accomplished writer, one of the few who is really capable of getting under the skin of between-the-wars British high society. The protagonist is a butler ("Stevens", Hopkins role) in the employment of one of Englands landed aristocracy (played by James Fox), a man who is broadly sympathetic to the nascent Nazi regime in Germany, and would like to see closer ties in the name of peace and an outdated sense of the value of a gentleman. It's directed by James Ivory (of Ivory-Merchant, the classiest of the "classic novel" breed of producers).

The film itself moves seamlessly between the pre and post-WW2 world, the plot gradually unveiling itself as Stevens makes a journey of rediscovery through his past. The journey is triggered by the arrival of an American diplomat who buys the house after the war. This prompts Stevens to attempt to recover a part of his past, a romance he sacrificed out of a misguided loyalty.

At its heart, this film, as with the book it's based on, is a disection of loyalty - loyalty to an ideal, to a person, to a concept - and sacrifice - the payments made in the name of that loyalty.

It's a restrained film - the performances perfectly matching the theme. Even the colours are slightly muted. As a recreation of a certain era it's perfect, aspic-sealed brilliance. The lynchpin scenes are superbly, sympathetically handled - the death of Stevens father in mid-dinner party, the reunion of Stevens and Miss Kenton (played by Emma Thompson, a study of sexual repression and simmering disappointment) in the cafe. This is real life painted on a grand canvas.

Emotional detachment is incredibly easy to do on the big screen. Just look at any blockbuster released in the last 10, 20, 30 years - you'll see it in spades, especially in the so-called emotional scenes. But it takes a master to produce emotional detachment and still show the boiling turmoil beneath the surface. Both Hopkins and Thompson display that turmoil in this film.

It's not going to be for everyone. But if you want to see acting and directing of the calibre that Hollywood likes to pretend to produce so often, then this is a film to watch and watch again. It's not as good as the greats of Hollywood legend - it's better. These are acting giants producing the performances of their lives, and directing that only serves to enhance those performances. It's a rare thing indeed.