Military Movies - Military Times

Tepid remake

Michael Caine has been in some dull movies in his long career, but he’s rarely, if ever, given a dull performance. Watching him at work is one of the few pleasures to be found in “Sleuth,” a “re-invention” of the 1972 film of the same name.

I’ve never seen the original (which got four Oscar nods but won none), so I have no basis for comparison. But it’s hard to believe this one will make that kind of Oscar splash, despite a new script by renowned playwright Harold Pinter and a return engagement by Caine, who starred in the 1972 film opposite Laurence Olivier.

Here, Jude Law takes the role Caine had in the original, callow Milo Tindle, while Caine takes Olivier’s role as the aging Andrew Wyke. But the basic setup remains the same.

Andrew is a wealthy author of mass-appeal mysteries with titles such as “Rat in a Trap.” Milo is an out-of-work actor and part-time hairdresser who is in love with Andrew’s estranged wife and wants to marry her.

Intending to talk Andrew into giving his wife a divorce, Milo has come to the author’s extravagant country estate, whose classic English façade masks a chilly interior full of concrete, chrome, security cameras and lots of minimalist modern art.

Andrew, eyes twinkling deviously, says he’ll gladly give up his wife, but only if he can be sure she’ll stay gone. And the only way to do that is to keep her in the pampered manner to which she’s accustomed — a feat clearly beyond Milo’s meager means.

So Andrew suggests that Milo “steal” the Wyke family jewels and pawn them with a fence Andrew knows in Amsterdam. Milo keeps the fortune and the wife, Andrew collects the insurance, and everyone’s happy.

But it’s not that simple. Each man views the other with utter contempt, and they’re soon locked in a verbal, then physical, macho duel, with humiliation and revenge the primary goals. (When Milo mentions that he’s half Italian, half English, for example, Andrew venomously replies: “So you’re a kind of half-breed.”)

The story is built as three distinct acts, with one protagonist and then the other gaining the upper hand in the first two as things seem headed toward a deliciously dark and juicy climax.

Caine and Law are great actors, and through those first two acts, their sparring is great fun. Then comes the third act — and it all crashes on the rocks. I won’t dish any spoilers here, but I’ll tell you this: I felt badly cheated.

“Sleuth” originally was born as a stage play, and it shows. On screen, the artifice of the setting, the coldness of the characters and the claustrophobic structure of the story make the film feel longer than its scant 88 minutes, and when the third act spins into the ether, it just grows tiresome.

“Sleuth” is a vacuous showpiece — a flick that will appeal mainly to art-house habitués who obsess about the “craft” of acting, even to the point of being oblivious to a film’s entertainment value.

Or lack thereof.

Rated R for language and violence.