Thursday, April 21, 2011

Sleuth

A game of cat and mouse between rich crime writer Laurence Olivier and hairdresser Michael Caine who's having an affair with Olivier's wife. Based on Anthony Shaffer's play, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

I was disappointed by this film. It has some of the same problems as Wait Until Dark, that all the dressing up and theatrical shenanigans might work well on stage but less so on the screen. There's a certain cleverness, but the film lasting more than two hours, it just got a bit silly and tiresome in the end. It's just hard to believe in the characters and care about what happens to them. Also, the identity of the police inspector was not that difficult to guess.

3 comments:

  1. Aw, Sleuth is one of my favorites. I thought the actors were superb and loved the kitsch of the mansion (those figurines!). Have you seen the remake with Michael Caine as crazy, old Andrew Wyke? It's shorter and there's (arguably) less silliness but it's much less fun.

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  2. No, haven't seen the remake. Not really a fan of Kenneth Branagh, and weren't the reviews pretty terrible?

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  3. The remake's not great but some of the things you disliked in the '72 version are cut out. I'm also not a fan of Kenneth Branagh (or Harold Pinter really) but some of the changes are kinda interesting.

    I recently finished watching a bunch of Michael Caine movies myself. It's nice to read your short reviews. :)

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