Sleuth (1972)
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Sleuth Movie Review
Sleuth is a 1972 mystery film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. It’s such a wonderful flick.
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“Wit in the face of adversity! Good!
You’ve learned something from the English“
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Andrew Wyke, a wealthy author of detective novels and game aficionado, facing off against his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle, a middle-class hair salon-owner. When Wyke, who is seemingly content to split from his wife strikes an unusual deal with Tindle, it sets into motion a fierce game of one-upmanship between the two, with the stakes growing increasingly higher.
Yes, this is in its total approach and execution a chamber drama meaning that it’s theatrical in approach with just these two actors squaring off with each other and nobody else to be seen anywhere. I love such dramas when done right, and this is most definitely done right.
The film is still cinematic in its own right owing to absolutely stupendous production design as this set looks great. The house is so well utilized and explored within the different scenarios with the attention to detail being fantastic. The direction from Joseph L. Mankiewicz is reliably outstanding, and this surely ranks among his greater films, and that is no small feat to get into that higher echelon.
But this kind of film wouldn’t succeed without amazing dialogue, and sure enough, the dialogue here never disappoints. Their endless conversations and discussions as well as humorous banter continue to hold viewer’s interest as the script is so incredibly clever and many lines here were carefully written, very witty and quite sophisticated.
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Now is the perfect time to talk about the movie’s stars. Yes, I have never been the biggest fan of Michael Caine, but when he’s great, he can be truly terrific. And that’s the case here. In fact, this might be his career-best performance as his Milo Tindle is so believable and very well developed while his performance is complex and he makes the character both realistic in a way, but also constantly cool and suave. Especially his line delivery is fabulous.
But in my opinion, Laurence Olivier steals the show here, and another argument can also be made about this performance being his greatest ever. Yes, even at an older age, he still remained a superb actor, but this movie showed him at his more realistic and less theatrical which was interesting and unexpected. Yes, his character is over-the-top, but Olivier plays him also grounded in reality and thus Andrew Wyke becomes iconic in my book. Especially his facial expressions and his emotion delivery are stupendous.
The only thing that bothered me a bit in Sleuth has to be its tone as the film is very much comedic in the entirety of its first half that by the end of it, when it becomes serious and dangerous, a part of me could not buy it. The thrilling elements of the third act were thus a bit blunted in impact.
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But still, that finale was amazing and phenomenally executed in detail and suspense. And the beginning remains my favorite part as their meeting and striking a playful conversation was very engaging to follow. The whole movie is incredibly entertaining despite its somewhat longer runtime. It was never boring in any scene which is a great testament to the strength of the screenplay and the dialogue. Also, that disguise sequence is absolutely brilliant how unexpected and twisty it is.
Thanks to a meticulous attention to detail, a wonderful screenplay and truly fantastic, witty and playful dialogue, Sleuth is a brilliant, consistently engaging chamber drama which benefits from many great twists and turns. Watching Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine square off through the entirety of this picture was incredibly entertaining, and a strong argument could be made that they have never been better than in this perfectly acted, very amusing mystery.
