SLEUTH/CAPTURES THE ESSENCE

It’s quite a feat to make a gripping film involving only two characters in one location. “Sleuth” does just that.

It helps that the film begins with an intriguing concept: young lover arrives at the grand home of his new girlfriend’s celebrated husband to plead for a divorce.

A concept that is cleverly knocked on its head when said husband says he will happily get rid of the woman in question if only said lover will steal a million pound necklace that very night for their mutual benefit.

It helps too that the single location is an ultra modern, state-of-the-art house complete with mysterious remote lighting, sliding walls, garish artwork, fabulous furnishings and an abundance of shadows.

And it helps that the two characters are played by Jude Law and Michael Caine (main photo), both of whom seem relieved to be left to play their parts on single location, free to concentrate on a free-wheeling, wide-ranging display of emotions rather than flitting from here to there.

Helps too that the script is by Harold Pinter, a playwright who knows more than a thing of two about wringing tension from a limited number of characters trapped on a small stage. And that the director is Kenneth Branagh, an old stage hand himself, who evidently relishes trying to use his camera to out-Pinter Pinter’s words.

Filed November 19, 2007.