Review of Sleuth (2007) by Joseph D — 26 May 2008

I'm a big fan of the original 1972 film based on the play by Anthony Schaffer and as such built up an idea of what to expect from this remake before seeing it. It was pretty much exactly what I expected except I didn't realise Jude Law was so crap.

This was a film that really never needed a remake and had no potential for one. Nothing is drastically different from the original film, so all we end up with is an inferior adaptation of the play that leaves you wishing you just watched the original again.

The original is a wonderfully witty little dialogue fest and showcase for it's two actors. Harold Pinter's adaptation with the screenplay has removed all of the naturalism from the original script and turned it into one of his pseudo-absurd theatre pieces. As such, the dialogue is just spouted off from each actor in turn instead of them actually interacting with eachother. This remains the case for the first 'act' or so of the film, though admittedly the two seem to warm to eachother later on. Unfortunately, it's a little too late and only cements how theatrically this film has turned out. Unlike the 1972 movie, it feels like someone just took a camera along to a performance of the play, although to be fair, some nice little touches are used to try and stop this such as lots of us watching action through CCTV screens.

For a film that relies so heavily on the actors, Jude Law really lets things down. Michael Caine is fantastic as ever but Jude's delivery is all over the place. He can hit the emotions, what he can't handle is transitions from one emotion to another. There's no inbetween. And thanks to Jude, the 2nd 'act' of the film which features the first major twist is moreorless ruined. I don't want to ruin anything, all I will say is that Jude's characterisation might be there, but his accent to carry it is awful. He goes from Yorkshire to American to Somerset; it's terrible. He's so bad at carrying off the role, that the camera-work actually has to cover for him by not showing his face properly. However, all this does is makes the film look really awkward because of it's un-natural camera-work. Michael Caine did a MUCH better job with the role when he played it in the 1972 film.

That all said and done, if you weren't to judge this film against the original, it would most likely not be too bad, just nothing special, however there is an original and as such I have every right to judge this against it. It's okay, just pointlessly tampering with a classic and in the end the film just feels hollow and almost nastier than the original, which whilst quite dark in ways, was never really cynical, just mischievous. Sadly, I can't say the same for this version.

Personal enjoyment: 5/10.

Actual quality as a film: 6/10.