40
Whatever pleasure can be wrung from Sleuth lies in the black comedy of Caine and Law's sinuous symbiosis.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
Sleuth is well acted, and directed by Branagh with chilly, distant ingenuity. It has a certain edge and daring, or more to the point it pretends to.
63
While the entire premise of Sleuth is a gimmick, having Michael Caine and Jude Law remake the 1972 adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's Tony Award-winning play heightens the gimmick quotient.
70
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
I think the movie works best if you know the original and have a taste for goofy revisionism.
63
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
The 1972 movie was better paced and presented a superior story but this one has its own pleasures. It's an interesting failure - a film that works more successfully as a study of technique and writing than as a motion picture.
63
Just when things should be getting exciting and complex, they become repetitive and predictable. Subtext becomes hint becomes statement becomes declaration. For once, Pinter is a little too easy to understand.
30
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
The result is that what was once insignificant is now insufferable.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
It's like "Deathtrap" crossed with "Cribs" as staged by Stanley Kubrick.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
Despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film.
50
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.