Sleuth (6/10)
by Tony Medley
Sleuth was an interesting
1970 play by Anthony Shaffer that was developed into a Joseph L.
Mankiewicz 1972 film starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. Hard
to go wrong there, although it was 139 minutes long.
Now Kenneth Branagh has
taken a turn at it, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. Branagh even got
Michael Caine to return, although this time he’s playing mystery writer
Andrew Wyke, Olivier’s role. Jude Law appears to take over Caine’s role
as Milo Tindle. One thing in Branagh’s favor here is that he has trimmed
the running time substantially, down to 86 minutes.
The best thing I liked
about this was the cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos, who uses unique
camera angles and all sorts of other tricks, like showing Wyke and
Tindle drinking by framing their bodies facing each other with their
heads out of the frame.
As far as the filmmaking
goes, it compares somewhat to Fracture, earlier this year.
Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as entertaining as that Anthony Hopkins
vehicle, which was one of the year’s more charming films.
The script has some witty
lines, even having Wyke say “What’s it all about?” a clever reference to
one of Caine’s more successful outings. Even so, I found myself
squirming a lot and looking at my watch.
Caine gives one of his
standard performances, which is not a criticism because he is one of the
better actors around. Law is not bad, but he’s not Michael Caine. There
is something unique about Caine. Law is a pretty good actor, but there’s
nothing unique about him. I can’t imagine going to a film just to see
Jude Law, and I can imagine going to a film just to see Michael Caine.
There’s not much else you can say about this film because to tell the
plot is to ruin it for anyone who doesn’t know what’s going on.
This is just another good
example of why it’s not a good idea to try to remake a film that was
originally made by people like Mankiewicz, Caine, and Olivier. It’s such
a longshot that the remake will be able to live up to the original.
.
In essence it fails because Michael Caine is no Laurence Olivier and
Jude Law is no Michael Caine.
September 18, 2007
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