Sleuth
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Starring:
Michael Caine - Andrew Wyke
Jude Law - Milo Tindle
I always roll my eyes as right-wing pundits try to play big and macho tough guys; a persona that betrays their flabby, bloated, exteriors. They want men to be men, whatever that means. But after seeing the remake of the brilliant 1972 Laurence Olivier/Michael Caine film, this time starring Caine in the Olivier role of the brilliant and malevolent crime fiction writer Andrew Wyke and Jude Law in Caine's role of the handsome lothario Milo Tindle, who is sleeping with Wyke's wife, I have to say I may have to put down the book and pick up whatever it is real men pick up (Ladies?).
The original Sleuth is a story built along its twists, and while the remake continues to turn on the surprise one-upsmanship between its two and only characters, there's a presumption that you've already seen the original and can only be surprised by the plot in the third act. But rather than try to twist the narrative and stretch the game one step further, screenwriter Harold Pinter seizes on something not readily apparent in the more revenge-heavy story of the original film. Pinter sees something far more insidious and disturbing in these two men who are allegedly fighting over Wyke's wife but actually fighting over their own masculinity when the measure of a man is no longer physical strength but intellectual prowess.
And just as Wyke's wife designed the house that serves as the setting for the entire film, she is thus the designer of the metaphorical cage that pits these two men against each other. However, she may be the impetus and the jailer, but she is not the prize. Wyke and Tindle are pathetically measuring their penis-size through a battle of wits and humiliation and the display would be utterly unwatchable if not for the unsurprisingly brilliant performances of Caine and Law. These are showy performances but it works since each man is putting on a show for the other. It's all about intellectual posturing. Yes, these two men do hit each other and use guns as a means of force, but these physical hits are only in service of deception. To use brute force as a means to victory is to lose the game, for brute force is the way of the pre-modern man.
Unfortunately, already loaded down by the flashy performances and Pinter's thematically-heavy screenplay, the direction of Kenneth Branagh makes the film too clever by half. Every shot calls attention to itself and while it fits the tone of the characters, it brings a third man into the mix and for a brain-battle thatss about one step away from rivaling the one at the end of Scanners, it's more than the film can handle and serves more as a distraction than a service to letting the script and the actors handle the film. I appreciate that Branagh doesn't want to be left out of his own movie, but he's responsible for telling the best story possible and by leaping out in front of the camera with every over-designed lighting choice and over-thought camera-angle, he draws focus and pulls the viewer out of the film.
While it lacks the beautiful simplicity and charm of the original, the remake builds on its predecessor and in doing so conjures some engaging new ideas delivered through phenomenal performances and only slightly undone by over-direction.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
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