Sleuth

The plot details remain the same. Handsome hairdresser Tindle (Jude Law) turns up at the opulent, gadget-laden home of crime novelist Wyke (Michael Caine), whose wife he has been seeing for some time. Tindle wants Wyke to grant a divorce, but the crafty writer is having none of it, and he has his own plan for revenge against this cocky young philanderer. The stage is set for a battle of wits which grows increasingly tense and dangerous as the night drags on, and which ultimately ends in murder – or does it?

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Editors Note

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It's an inherently stagey setup – just as it was in Joseph L Mankiewicz's mildly entertaining 1972 film – but Branagh's attempts to spice it up visually just get in the way of the drama. He goes overload on the tricksy camera angles, garish lighting, and some bizarre production design which leaves Wyke's house resembling the lair of a 1970's Bond villain. The picture is cluttered, with the director failing to give his story enough breathing space to make an impact on the viewer. Branagh has also shorn over 50 minutes from the original film, but even at this brisk length his Sleuth can't sustain itself, with Pinter's coarse, blunt dialogue getting old very quickly, and the whole thing sliding into homoerotic lunacy in its final third.