Movie Review

Mania Grade: C-

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Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Michael Caine, Jude Law
Writer: Harold Pinter, based on the stage play by Anthony Shaffer
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

SLEUTH

Not all change is good...

By Rachel Reitsleff October 12, 2007

Michael Caine and Jude Law in SLEUTH (2007).
© Sony Picture Classics

The Anthony Shaffer stage thriller Sleuth was successfully adapted into a movie starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine back in 1972. Though the material is a bit of its period, Shaffer’s construction is timelessly solid and the idea of having the 35-years-older Caine play the Olivier role is actually pretty appealing. So there was reason to hope for the best when a remake was announced, with Jude Law (one of the new film’s producers) in the role that Caine had previously essayed, Kenneth Branagh at the directorial helm and Harold Pinter doing the rewrite. The best, however, is no way to describe the results, which by the end are such a mess that trying to imagine the thought processes that went into it present more of a brain-teaser than the story itself.

Shaffer’s original premise, left intact by Pinter and Branagh, is that wealthy world-famous novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) has been abandoned by his wife in favor of the younger Milo Tindle (Law). Tindle shows up at Wyke’s home to request that Wyke formally dissolve his marriage so that Tindle and Wyke’s ex can get on with their now-shared lives. Wyke takes a dim view of the request and starts playing games with Tindle.

The first act starts out promisingly but starts slacking a little due to two things. One, while Branagh’s desire to visually jazz things up is understandable, the extremes of lighting and set design make things start to seem surreal in a way that doesn’t serve the script. First of all, it’s so much that it borders on camp; second, it’s distracting; third, it gives us aesthetic information about Wyke that turns out to be inaccurate. The other problem is Law’s performance. While Law excels as certain types of characters, he seems utterly insincere here. Now, Tindle is of course being insincere much of the time, but we’re supposed to believe him, or believe that Wyke believes him, and Law appears so completely facetious throughout that we can’t believe the intelligent Wyke falls for a word of it.

More unfortunate notions follow, including the incorporation of banks of video monitors into the scenery but not into the storyline, a failure to conceal something visually apparent that needs to be concealed for the second act to work, and a third act that has been revised in a manner that is both implausible and annoying.

The one good reason to see the new version of Sleuth is Caine, who demonstrates steely intelligence, malevolent humor and honest rage. He’s so good that Caine fans may be able to live with the film’s shortcomings. For others, though, it may take a sleuth to figure out why the filmmakers wanted to redo this project this way.

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