By snoadmin
It’s the vicious way these British actors whip words and slap cold, menacing stares from one scene to the next, swinging from the skyscraping gray balconies to the uncomfortable yet intoxicating inner rooms of Andrew Wyke’s weird cavern.
It is particularly essential – every word, every angle, the sum or subtraction of props or spit that flies out when the characters talk rapidly – how Kenneth Branagh’s “Sleuth” unravels then spins every conscious observer into the movie’s very tense, hostile match between the knotty Wyke (Michael Caine) and tart Milo Tindle (Jude Law).
The story’s basically already been told, as Branagh’s movie borrows from the flowery 1972 classic directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, which was based on Anthony Shaffer’s play of the same name.
Today, however, the script has been revitalized with the dark wit shaped by the legendary writer and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, along with Branagh’s modification of the story into something more modern. Also borrowing from the past is the original Milo from the big screen: Caine, who fulfills the role of Wyke.
Caine’s role supplies most of the underpinning necessary to make the film so outré.
We meet Wyke obsessing with his collection of ostentatious crime-fighting equipment – cameras, computers, high-tech devices. Flushed deep within his fantasy Georgian mansion composed of spacey chambers adorned with highbrow modernist paintings and sculptures, it quickly becomes apparent how much of this place resembles an eccentric version of the Bat Cave. And, considering Wyke is a crime book author, the dry scenery seems fitting. But on this occasion, everything is fitting for the purpose of eating Milo for breakfast.
Milo, the young and handsome lover of Wyke’s wife, decides to meet the old writer under the premise that Wyke will decide to finally divorce his wife.
And that, essentially, is what the entire 86 minutes of “Sleuth” is all about: two men in a room, one older, one younger, fighting physically and psychologically over a woman you never meet.
Wyke, constructing an unrelenting offer for Milo, convinces him that the divorce will happen only if Milo does as he tells him, which is to steal a million-dollar necklace from the house’s exclusive vault. Wyke supplies the instructions, jewels and money that will come from selling the stolen charms, but Milo must go through a humiliating marathon of breaking into the house when, really, the vault is just right there. Milo becomes vulnerable and Wyke wins. And this is just the beginning.
This rip-roaring thriller begins with a dramatic opening, wide shots and all. But the jabbering and moments of morbid jealously twist the pressure into a sexually charged gladiatorial poem, something completely unexpected and enjoyably perplexing.
The house, where the entire movie takes place, is awkward, turning in all sorts of shades of blues, greens and red. The dialogue could be Shakespearean, or something worse, like draconian. But every scene and every line, every angle and every crazy exchange of words makes for such a solid, flowing film. The plot, style and exceptional acting – it’s definitely something so rare in cinema nowadays and definitely worth seeing. Maybe even twice.
Law is especially the actor to admire in this film, and that’s hardly a title he’s accomplished in previous movies, with the exception of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” He’s torn and withered at first, but he becomes an utterly unhinged maniac who brilliantly contradicts Wyke’s threatening and calculating persona. It’s something of a fight we might’ve wished we saw from Law in “Closer.”
“Sleuth” will be released in theaters Friday.
