Review of Sleuth (2007) by Petty A — 07 Dec 2008

Jude Law continues his Michael Caine re-make tour (the Jaws: The Revenge joke still stands) in this story about a hairdresser/actor (Law) who is called to the house of a wealthy man (Michael Caine) to discuss the loss of his wife to this other man. What at first seems like a simple talk about the transition of loving turns into an intense psychological chess game between the two men.

Sleuth is a film that is full of dead ends. You think you're going one way but are actually just getting stopped and turned around to start over again. Even in the end you're waiting for that row of bushes to turn you on your way. Very few films have achieved confinement (Hitchcock was the master of it), but Sleuth makes this big, cold house feel like a techno-tomb that these to men will compete to the death in.

I really didn't care for Jude Law in this film. His acting was way over the top and befitted a 1930's pirate serial. Maybe if he did something original... Michael Caine is brilliant as usual and really pulls this film out of the remake muck that it is. He's brilliant in his role.

A word of warning: this is a remake and my appetite is we to see how that film ran with Caine in Law's role and Laurence Olivier in Caine's role. This sounds like a superior film. This version is just Caine giving Law acting lessons.