SLEUTH

SLEUTH is a talky old mystery play from 1970 that was made into a movie in 1972. That movie earned both Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine Oscar® nominations for Best Actor. Michael Caine also stars in this 2007 remake, but he now plays Olivier’s part while Jude Law takes the role that Caine played in 1972.

In this remake adapted by Harold Pinter, who has changed the plot in a couple important ways, Michael Caine is Andrew Wycke, a best-selling mystery novelist living alone in a large, ultra-modern country estate in England. The movie opens with Andrew welcoming his wife Marguerite’s new lover, a struggling actor named Milo Tindle (played by Jude Law), into his house. Andrew has invited Milo there to make a proposal to him.

After trading insults and bon mots with Milo, Andrew suggests that Milo will never be able to afford Marguerite’s extravagant tastes. He proposes that Milo steal some expensive jewelry hidden in his safe, so that Milo can sell the jewelry and Andrew can collect the insurance. This scheme turns out to be an elaborate sadistic game, which leads to more games and twists.

There has always been a mechanical theatricality to this script, but director Kenneth Branagh enhances this quality by setting the three acts in a metallic-looking interior design furnished with ultra-modern furniture, decorations and devices. Consequently, the characters seem even more cold and unappealing than they were in the original.

Even worse, the filmmakers add plenty of strong foul language and, in the third act, a distasteful homosexual subplot. Thus, the remake is rated R, while the original movie was rated only PG. The original movie wasn’t a morally uplifting work, so these strategies will only alienate the broad audience even further.