Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.
Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.
Thanks a lot acorns!
Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!
Harold Pinter wrote his adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s play without ever seeing Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1972-film version of “Sleuth,” which starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.
That little tidbit is a tip-off to the daring approach that director Kenneth Branagh and his two-man cast take toward this theatrically polished three-act suspense comedy.
Filthy rich detective-novelist Andrew Wyke (Michael Caine) hosts a visit at his rural British fortress manor from Milo Tindle (Jude Law), the man who ran off with Wyke’s wife and who now seeks to broker a divorce agreement.
Milo is a struggling actor and part-time hair stylist who takes the bait in Wyke’s preset cat-and-mouse game of one-upsmanship.
However, Milo turns the tables on Wyke as the rules of the “game” threaten to break down the barriers of Wyke’s carefully orchestrated surveillance camera existence.
Michael Caine and Jude Law give inspired performances that make the most of Pinter’s brilliant and pithy dialogue.
Rated R. 88 mins.
