Sleuth (2007)

If you saw the 1972 version with Olivier and Caine then that will likely have robbed this iteration of a fair chunk of it’s jeopardy, especially in the latter stages as Sir Michael's "Andrew" invites playboy “Milo” (Jude Law) to his ultra-modern country pile where his host suggests a plan by which he can continue to cheat with his wife. Indeed, not just that but secure the funds to keep them both in the style to which she has already become accustomed. Thing is though, has the cocky young man the intellect to match the wily and shrewd “Andrew”? Is there a deal on the cards to keep both men happy? Caine makes for quite an engaging protagonist for the first half hour, but unfortunately the scheme itself struggles to remain plausible and as the second phase of their tennis match kicked in I felt the pace and the thrust of the concept just too weak to hold my attention. It’s as if all of the creative effort went into the A-side of the film and the B-side is just there to tee up a conclusion that is mischievous at times, even ever so slightly homo-erotic (“Milo” is an hairdresser), but that just fizzles out after an surfeit of noisy dialogue that largely dissolves the originally quite entertaining dynamic between the two men. The camera clearly loves Jude Law and this does have it’s moments, but these are too few to make this remake a patch on the original, and it’s not a film I’m going to remember for long.