Movie Review: Sleuth (2007)

Director Ken Branagh brings the 1972 classic film Sleuth into the 21st century with his remake, reimagining, whatever you want to call it. The original starred Laurence Olivier as Andrew Wyke and Michael Caine as Milo Tindle. They comprised two-thirds of the cast, with the one-film wonder Alec Cawthorne being the final third. (And there's a very good reason Cawthorne doesn't have any other screen credits.) The new version has Michael Caine moving to Olivier's role and Jude Law taking over for Caine. And still, that's it, the entire cast.

Wyke is a successful novelist, an older man married to an attractive younger woman Maggie, who is having an affair with unemployed actor Tindle. Tindle comes to Wyke to ask him to grant a divorce so they can be together and marry. Wyke agrees, but only if Tindle will cooperate on a charade. Tindle must pretend to steal some expensive jewels from Wyke's safe, and sell them in order to have the money to support Maggie in her accustomed style. Wyke will then file a claim on the insurance and get the money. Everyone gets what they want. But things don't go as expected.

I've been a fan of Branagh's films for a long time. I was one of the 5 people in the world who actually liked his Frankenstein movie. He's a gifted actor, and a strong director with a flair for atmosphere and tension. A story like this is perfect for him as a director (and as an actor but he's probably too young for Wyke and too old for Tindle, so Ken stays behind the camera). Branagh delivers with spades. He fills the screen with inventive and compelling images that give the film an edge without allowing his camera work to overwhelm his story. (This is one of many areas where he shows the Hitchcock influence. So many directors, most notably Oliver Stone, are as imaginative or more as Hitchcock, but their visual styles tend to become the focus of the film rather than being tools to support and build up the story, as Alfred did.) Branagh knows this an actor's film, and keeps the focus squarely on his two leads.

The acting is good, though Law is a little over the top at times. The original featured Caine and Olivier, with the two men performing at almost equally high levels. In this version, Caine is clearly the superior actor. Law is good, but not quite to Caine's level. But any deficiencies in the acting do not take away from the film.

Where the film is disappointing is in the screen play. The dialog is often quite witty between the two men. It's fun just to listen to the two of them duel. Harold Pinter does a great job of setting up the story and carrying it along, but the climax is weak.

The original film was a compelling three act story filled with themes of class tension and intellectual arrogance. Olivier's Wyke was a well-bred, educated English gentleman who was more offended by the idea of losing his wife to a poor commoner, than of simply losing his wife. His motivation was more about putting Tindle in his place, punishing him for daring to pursue a rich man's wife, than simply exacting revenge against the man who stole his wife. Tindle, on the other hand, is ultimately motivated by an obsession to humiliate and destroy Wyke at all costs. Their duel is a three set tennis match that ends with no winner and both men destroyed in one way or another. I suppose one could say Milo ultimately wins but pays such a high price that it would be odd to call him the winner.

The new film is a similar three act story with none of those themes. Both men are simply motivated by the desire to humiliate the other. Dropping the themes of class tension is a reflection of the times. It's something that would have resonated to some degree, particularly among British viewers, in 1972 but not today. Milo is motived in both films by the same desire, though the lengths to which each will go is a bit different. Milo and Andrew play the same three set match, but with a very different third act/set and with an outcome that shows Andrew as clearly the winner.

It's this third act that undermines the film. The writing is disappointing. The cleverness of the dialog that characterized the first two acts disappears. The quality of acting falls off a bit, particularly with Law. It's confusing because it's no longer clear why each man is doing what he does. We ultimately get to the same climactic action, but the new film's version lacks the Shakespearean tragedy of the original. The new film just kind of ends.

In the end, the Branagh version is interesting and entertaining and I can't not recommend it, for the quality of the acting and directing, but to really experience Sleuth, watch the original.