Sleuth
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 12, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
14
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
At 86 minutes, Sleuth '07 plays like a Cliffs Notes version of the original (which was skillfully adapted by Anthony Shaffer from his own hit play) with far too much of its pacing and delicious texture ruthlessly cut. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
The results will be received with a large, loud yawn by all but the most loyal fans of Pinter and hard-working co-stars Michael Caine and Jude Law. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The result is unfortunate: Pinter can't find emotional depths that just aren't there, but dispenses with most of what made the original entertaining in the search for them. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Even lousy adaptations have worth, if they attract attention to little-seen originals. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The new version is a shiny piece of hardware that might as well be called "Sleuth 2.0," and it's exactly what you would expect from Pinter: very clever, extremely cold. Maliciously entertaining, too, until the halfway point, when you suddenly start wondering why anyone should care. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Sleuth"is that rare film that would have been better longer. You're not through looking at Caine and Law when the final credits roll. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Little more than a sleek, stylish stunt. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A high-pedigree, low-interest affair that serves mostly as an exercise in postmortem speculation: Why is a project with so many prominent names attached to it so sterile and lifeless? Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
This might have been OK for cable, but as a night out at the movies, it feels like a bit of a cheat. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
It's not a disaster: Branagh is an actor's director, and there are biting moments throughout and solid performances from Caine and Law. Read full review
40
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Whatever pleasure can be wrung from Sleuth lies in the black comedy of Caine and Law's sinuous symbiosis. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Director Kenneth Branagh has mercifully pared the action down to 88 minutes (the first movie dragged on for 138), but the final act, with its obscure homosexual flirtation, still seems to go on forever. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
It takes something really special to bring together a Nobel Prize-winning writer, a director renowned for his Shakespeare adaptations, a two-time Oscar-winning actor who also happens to be a knight of the British realm, and the reigning No. 1 British screen heartthrob and still come up with nonsense. Read full review
40
EmpireSimon Crook
Minus a couple of brisk, black laughs, this hollow remake botches the twists and sucks the fun right out of its feisty source. Read full review
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