Andrew Wyke (Michael Caine), a famous author, is visited by Milo Tindle (Jude Law), an aspiring actor who is the new lover of Wyke’s wife. In the author’s high-tech mansion the pair engage in a menacing game of deception and humiliation. One is looking for revenge, the other for anything he can get.

It’s hard to term this as a remake of the 1972 film Sleuth,  an adaptation by Anthony Shaffer of his own play. That movie pitted Michael Caine in the role of Tindle against Laurence Olivier’s Wyke to brilliant success. Seriously, if you haven’t seen that movie then stop reading this and go and rent it now!

The new version is written by Harold Pinter, the man of long pauses, comic timing and a Nobel Prize for Literature tucked away in a cupboard somewhere. Remarkably, Pinter didn’t see Shaffer’s play or the original movie before writing the script, and it makes for a complete re-invention of Sleuth. Pinter’s take is darker, more intimidating and loses the essential fun of the first one.

I think there’s an awful lot to enjoy in this movie. In the first half an hour Kenneth Branagh’s direction mischievously sets the tone with odd angles and framing of Caine and Law. It’s almost a quick homage to the film’s theatrical origins before he settles down to let the two actors get on with the business at hand. The verbal jousting between the two men is witty, full of sinister undertones and a refreshing change to a lot of dialogue we have to listen to these days.

Caine and Law are superb in the lead roles and it’s a testament to them that they are able to carry a movie that only has a minimal set of locations and characters. If you suffer from claustrophobia it might be brought on by Branagh’s direction in the confining location. Yet, the mansion itself becomes a character in it’s own right.  It’s  an impartial witness to the games of deceit the two men employ and adds something to their performances.

Overall I thought it was very good, if a little lacking in feeling. The script is so cold that it’s hard to really care for either character or pick sides. This definitely is not a movie for everyone. If you’re put off by a film carried by dialogue over action then this isn’t for you.   It’s a clever movie that I found throughly entertaining.