While the prospect of a four-and-a-half hour costume drama, a genre that traditionally delights in the tedious and drab, may not seem especially enticing, take a chance on Mysteries of Lisbon. As the final offering of the late Chilean filmmaker Raul Riuz this ambitious epic is sumptuous and dream-like, a mesh of intertwining stories spanning generations. It has more straying plot lines, bizarre flashbacks and shifting characterization than Lost, but is beautifully shot and wonderfully absurd, part fairy tale and part soap opera, a story of other people's stories genuinely worthy of the time commitment.

Adapted from Camilo Castelo Branco's 1854, as of yet untranslated, novel, the film's core focuses on young orphan João who is told the tale of the love and losses of his two parents; both young aristocrats briefly engaged in an illicit affair. From here we are made to follow a labyrinth yarn of three decades of taboo romances, quests for vengeance and lost children, with mysterious gypsies, unpleasant cads and slighted nobility all thrown in along the way.

Riuz's hold of the material is masterful, taking a hugely convoluted narrative and effortlessly playing about with it, linking seemingly disconnected stories with ease and blurring lines between fiction and reality. The identities of the film's characters are fluid and ever-changing, an elaborate form of mind play on the audience, pulled off through consistently strong and convincing performances.

The otherworldly quality of the film is helped too by the lavish costumes and expansive, elaborate settings, captured artfully in the exploitation of sunlight and vivid skies, flickering candles and shadows. There is often a sense the cast are actually acting atop some grand classical painting. The cinematography is playful, the camera ducks under tables, lingers behind curtains  and there are a couple of magnificently shot ballroom scenes that almost parody the pomposity of the costume drama. At times there's the risk of descent into messy, overly preposterous melodrama, but it is the slightly confused and absurd quality of the film that marks Riuz's irrepressible creativity, ultimately Mysteries of Lisbon's greatest strength.

As is tradition, this years Best Picture Oscar nominees served as a roll call for industry-safe and tremendously over-hyped film, all united in their offensive tepidness. Mysteries of Lisbon is a refreshing knock to the bland. Though at times runaway and overzealous in its storytelling, it is passionate, beautiful and inventive, a great final testament to Riuz's talent.