Sleuth

Kenneth Branagh directs the second screen version of Anthony Shaffer's play about mind games and murder plots between Andrew Wyke, a wealthy old writer out for revenge, and Milo Tindle, a young working-class man having an affair with his wife. Michael Caine, who played the young man in the 1972 screen version, is the elder this time around, with Jude Law (also a producer on the film) the younger in this two-man battle of wits and performance. Harold Pinter's adaptation slashes huge swatches of text and Branagh drops it all in a high-tech mansion of concrete and pulsing video surveillance monitors, more a bunker than a home. Caine is a force to be reckoned with, but the film comes off as little more than a contrivance for the theatrical spectacle of two actors duking it out, and Law is simply outmatched. Features two commentary tracks (one by Branagh and Caine, one by Law), the 15-minute featurette "A Game of Cat and Mouse: Behind the Scenes of Sleuth" and a featurette on the makeup. Also available in Blu-ray format.