(2007) dir Kenneth Branagh, screenplay by Harold Pinter – w/ Michael Caine and Jude Law. And a fancy necklace.
Synopsis: Andrew’s (Caine’s) wife has left him for Milo (Law). Though of course the paperwork’s not entirely cleaned up yet. Like a good fellow, Milo wants to have a sit-down with Andrew, a man-to-man. A nice talk. It’s kinda like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, minus the women, with a little more sleight of hand thrown in for good measure.
Review: It’s hard to do much in the way of reviewing without giving away the movie. Yet Sleuth wasn’t surprising as it might have been–you don’t necessarily anticipate all the twists, but they also don’t come as that much of a surprise. The antagonism and banter between Caine and Law is quite good (which is fortunate, because otherwise the movie would not be worth watching at all). The dialogue itself has a peculiar cadence which you’ll either become accustomed to, or hate. If you have a problem with the kind of rhythmic, unnatural dialogue of David Mamet, this might not be the movie for you. The dialogue works, though, and gets you where you’re going. The main problem I had was the characters: they’re fine folks, and charismatic, but not actually likeable. Meaning, you don’t really care what happens to either of them. Meaning… well, what was the point, again? Human nature?
Rating: [•••½] out of [•••••]