Sleuth

Copyright 2007, Sony Pictures

A quick word here about another recent watch on Netflix Instant. I remember seeing the 1972 film version of the famous British play Sleuth, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, and loving it, despite its admitted staginess and heighted, over-the-top reality. I was eager, then, to check out the 2007 remake directed by Kenneth Branagh, adapted by the late Harold Pinter, and starring Michael Caine and Jude Law; for Caine, the role is reversed here. The movie pretty much disappeared from theaters and got tepid reviews, so I was surprised to even see it on Netflix, but I devoured it quickly.

Granted, if you're familiar with the old version, you really don't know what to expect with the 2007 version. Yes, there are two characters named Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle. Yes, Wyke is an older man, a famous author, married to a younger woman. Yes, Tindle, the younger, lower-class man, is fooling around with Wyke's wife and has come to ask Wyke for a divorce, and games do then proceed. But the design of the film is sharply different, as Wyke's house is no longer filled with nostalgic games and knick-knacks, nor is it homely and inviting in any way. Instead, the house is metallic, cold, at sharp angles, unfriendly; it's modern architecture gone wrong.

Also, the film is incredibly short: 86 minutes with credits, as opposed to the original being over two hours long. Thus, though some of the original's surprises remain intact (I wonder who that mysterious detective investigating Tindle's disappearance could be...), the outcome's shorter. Finally, the subtext is changed, no longer about the class system in Britain, but about the creeping homosexuality that the two leads give off towards each other. Thus, we have a more fascinating yet emptier film to watch. Caine and Law are great, the Pinter dialogue not giving them any pause. The film itself is a little flat, a little too stylish, to make up for the staginess and archness that pervades the surface of this play-turned-movie. I'd say see it, but only if you're a bit familiar with the source material.