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Sleuth (2007)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

2

Time Out rating

Average user rating
2 reviews

Synopsis

Rich older man Andrew Wyke invites Milo Tindle, his wife’s young lover, over to make him an offer – Milo can win her divorce if he agrees to break into Andrew’s house and steal his jewels. But the offer is not what it seems, and what follows is an elaborate game of cat and mouse between the two rival suitors.

Movie review

From Time Out London

It looks pretty hokey now, but the 1973 film of Anthony Shaffer’s hit play at least had some purpose: as an homage to the old-school English whodunnit which also suggested cultural values had clearly moved on, and as a chance to see Larry Olivier versus Michael Caine exemplifying class and generation tensions. Totally time-locked fare, in other words, so why remake it? Because Harold Pinter agreed to adapt the play? Because Caine agreed to take on the part of the ruthless older writer? Or simply because they could? Questions one asks because the finished product is such a head-scratcher. The blue-lit set looks like an ad for 1980s chrome-and-leather furnishings, Caine’s now a successful novelist, and unemployed actor Law is the visitor who announces he’s seeing to the former’s spouse so they need to talk.

And talk they do. Soon the air’s heavy with pauses and colloquialism rendered sinister by sheer dint of will from screenwriter and performers.  In one-minute bursts, it crackles – Law slinking louchely around Caine’s imposing stillness – but very, very soon you notice this rutting-stag display and the dialogue’s none-too-subtle ‘I’ll be buggered’ undertones have little meaningful relationship to the original material. In the circumstances, Law agreeing to play out a jewel theft makes little sense, retaining Shaffer’s second-act ‘Scooby Doo’ coup-de-théâtre proves an act of sheer folly, and Pinter’s reconceived final half-hour might as well be a separate playlet. Kenneth Branagh’s direction, meanwhile, its self-consciously skewed angles and surveillance-cam cutaways highlighting his weakness for the misplaced flourish, is more of a hindrance than a help. What were they thinking?

Author: Trevor Johnston 2007-11-20 12:24:11

Time Out London Issue 1944: November 20-26 2007


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User reviews of this film

  • tilly neill said...
    Posted on May 03 2009 23:44 unbelievably self obsesssed, embarassing, almost like student improv, we were making bets what would happen next, what did was always more ridiculous than what we had imagined.
    Report as inappropriate
  • DAVID TOTHAM said...
    Posted on Dec 04 2007 16:52 UTTER RUBBISH! COULDN'T EVEN WAIT TILL THE END, WALKED OUT. BOTH JUDE LAW AND CAINE ARE WOODEN AND ARE NOT CONVINCING, PAINFUL TO WATCH.HAVE SEEN BETTER PERFORMANCES AT PRIMARY SCHOOL PLAYS.
    JUST AWFUL
    Report as inappropriate

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Cast & crew

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Producer: Jude Law, Simon Halfon, Tom Sternberg, Marion Pilowsky, Kenneth Branagh, Simon Moseley

Cast: Jude Law, Michael Caine full cast

Rated: 15

Duration: 88 mins

UK Release: Nov 23 2007

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