Sleuth (2007)

Pop quiz hot shot, when is a remake not a remake? The answer is when both are based on a play and when the remake has the advantage of having Harold Pinter as the writer of the screenplay. Such is the case with Sleuth, a remake of a 1972 film which was an adaptation of a stage play. In the 1972 version Michael Caine played the young lothario and in this version he is the older of the two men. It is very easy to see how this started as a screenplay as it features only 2 characters, one stationary, if massive, set and very distinguishable scene breaks. However, the scene breaks may have been accented for effect by Kenneth Branagh, the director.

Andrew Wyke(Caine) and Milo Tindle are two men engaged in a battle of wits or one up manship. Tindle is sleeping with Wyke's wife and has come to Wyke's house to coax Wyke into giving his wife the divorce she wants. Whther or not any of that is actually true or not is beyond me and seems to be beyond the scope of the movie and appears just to be a set up to get the two men in a room together. What follows is a very complex game of cat and mouse. In act 1 Wyke wants Tindle to break into his house and steal a necklace so he can claim the insurance on it and Tindle and Wyke's wife can sell it and live off of it. It turns around on Tindle because Wyke was controlling the whole thing. In act 2, Tindle semi-cleverly disguises himself as a detective coming to arrest Wyke for the murder of Tindle. Act 3 takes a bizarre twist and derails the entire movie because in act 3 it is never clear who is who and what is what. We have no basis to believe the homosexuality when it is hastily thrown in our faces and we are not sure what to believe in anymore. In acts 1 and 2 we kind of understood what was going on and there was a clear cut game or trick at play, but in act 3 it seems that maybe Wyke is being sincere, but it isn't fully flushed out.

Sleuth is mostly better heard than seen. Pinter's script is quick and smart and Caine and Law handle it with ease and they both sound pleasant enough. The story moves from point A to point B swiftly without ever losing the wit or charm in Pinter's words. The violin heavy score adds an element of suspense without ever becoming annoying as a lot of violin heavy scores get. On the other hand we have Branagh's decision to film giant sections of the movie through surveillance cameras or giving bizarre close ups at weird moments. He also likes over head shots and quite a lot of shots where people are only half in the picture which can be a nifty trick with great effect, but here is just seems like someone bumped the camera man and no one fixed it. Branagh appears unsure how to handle anything that is going on from the action to the massive house that is almost a character in its own right. The script has obviously gotten the best of the director here and it hurts immensely.

The acting, though, is fabulous. Law, a very strong actor, really lets it rip as Tindle the possible psychopathic actor. He is adept at the disguise that is employed in act 2 (this is not a spoiler because only 2 actors appear in the opening credits)and he reaches crazy heights in the end of act 2. He is menacing, funny, charming, intelligent and down right evil and none of them seem to be too challenging. Caine, the consummate actor, plays Wyke as a very clever yet ferocious possible homosexual. The two men do the best they can in the third act when the script and the direction fail them and between the two of them they almost salvage the movie. They have a very nice chemistry even in times of deep hatred on screen. It is clear Law was not scared to tackle the role first played on screen by his acting partner and with Caine to play off of, Law appears to be in the driver's seat of Sleuth.

Final Grade: C-