Sleuth'

Plot Outline:
Remake of a 1972 film of the same title, written by Anthony Shaffer that was incidentally also later turned into a play. It's the story of two people.

On the one hand we have an aging writer (Michael Caine) who matches wits with the other who is a struggling actor (Jude Law) who has stolen his wife's heart and comes to him requesting him to divorce her.

Overall Impressions:
Having not seen the original (which is in IMDB's top 250 list), no comparisons are going to be made, except perhaps that since Michael Caine was in the original & has now reversed his role, he looks older. Now since that's done with onto the film.

I like short sweet films that're under 90 minutes, it gives me a preconceived hope that they knew from the very outset what the progressive structure of the film would be & haven't wasted time making up lethargic situations so that they can get from A to B. This film throws this concept out of the window. Why? because getting from A to B could have been a 10, maybe 20 minute journey. I don't mean it would make an interesting short film. What I mean is, this film entirely focusses on that verbose tension between point A and B. It's strength lies within it.

Considering there were only 2 people in the frame for pretty much it's entire duration, it was strangely gripping, the first hour just flew by, just like that. Even the very end was impressive, but that 30 odd minutes before the climax was a bit of a strain on the patience, which is a shame since it had pulled it off upto this point so well. I think partly this is due to the character in charge of the scene. Without giving anything away, I felt I understood the climax, but didn't understand the pre-climax, I'd go to the extent to say nor did they.

The performances were as expected of the cast, nothing spectacular, but they pulled it off. What was interesting & allowed them to oull it off was the situation & the dialogue. At points it did get a bit full of itself with its intelligent vocabulary, but hey, the guy was a writer, there we go, explained, forgiven.