Sleuth

Goofy art house tendencies (including an ill-thought dalliance with homo-eroticism) trigger a few giggles, yet the clever, crisply-acted power struggle seizes your attention

Director Kenneth Branagh has mercifully pared the action down to 88 minutes (the first movie dragged on for 138), but the final act... still seems to go on forever.

Kenneth Branagh's direction, its self-consciously skewed angles and surveillance-cam cutaways highlighting his weakness for the misplaced flourish, is more of a hindrance than a help.

Director Kenneth Branagh clearly is having fun navigating Tim Harvey's slick set design, but eventually the characters' deadly competitiveness becomes tedious.

It doesnt work, and the reasons why are no mystery, no mystery at all.

This film wants only to entertain, and other talents have gathered with Pinter to help.

It requires a light touch; I admire Branagh a great deal, but not for his light touch.

Idly plotted then tempered by a blunt ending. All of a sudden the viewer is left pondering 'eh?' as Pinter apparently run out of room on his pad.

Pinter's pauses, and the dour air of so much of the interplay, just don't fit on a story that's this slight.

Once the homosexual subtext is brought to the surface, everything seems to be a joke. Are they gay, kidding, or just considering?

Fans of the original should stay away.

The script includes a verbal motif that reminds us of what binds the film's four central talents together: 'I want to show you something.' [Blu-Ray review]