Leave it to a TIFF audience member to make the connection between cinematic past and present, quipping, “What’s it all about?” in a post-screening Q&A session for the recent update of Anthony Shaffer’s play, Sleuth. It’s a reference to Alfie, in which Sleuth stars Michael Caine and Jude Law had each played the titular character.
“Me and Michael (Caine) had never noticed that,” admitted Jude Law at a recent festival interview. Director Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine also pleading ignorance.
Additionally, ask any of the three Brit thespians about the relevance of Sleuth’s revisions penned by the iconic playwright Harold Pinter, and they would likely reply: “I don’t know.”
“Because Harold never gives us any answers,” Law explained, “I never pushed for any. I rather enjoy saying ‘I don’t know.’ That kind of ambiguity is very Pinter.” Harold Pinter (the notable force behind such classics as The Dumb Waiter, No Man’s Land and The Caretaker) is known for his mesmerizing ambiguities, re-wrote Sleuth in its entirety (the original was made in 1972) to avoid churning out yet another banal remake.
The story, however, remains the same—in order to cope with his wife’s affair with a young playboy Milo Tindle (Law), millionaire crime novelist Andrew Wyke (Caine) invites his rival over to his mansion for a dignified tête-à-tête. What unfolds is a ruthless game of dominance and wits, with Caine taking over exactly where he left off (he originally played the role of Tindle).
Law, who moonlights on Sleuth as producer, insists that he recruited Harold Pinter in order to break new ground.
“When Harold agreed,” Law recalled, “he made it clear that it wasn’t going to be an adaptation. He was going to take it somewhere absolutely new. So when I started, I really felt like I was creating a new character.”
That certainly seems to be the case, as Caine asserted that Sleuth is definitely no remake. “There’s no sense of remaking anything,” defended Caine. “If Law had brought me the script by Tony Schaffer and said we were going to remake this, I wouldn’t be in it. What brought me into it was the script by Pinter.”
Though none of the collaborators wished to speak for Pinter’s intentions, Law understood why Sleuth today would be relevant for modern audiences. “I think what interested me as a producer was just this notion of two men fighting, why men fight, why we return to this animal atavistic primal urge. We almost forget the thing we’re fighting over… (and yet) men still fight.”
Caine, on the other hand, would rather not dwell when preparing to play a role. “The character wouldn’t be thinking about that. If your wife is being unfaithful, you wouldn’t be thinking about current affairs. You’d be thinking about her affair.”
Part of Caine’s willful oblivion when reading further into the script likely stems from his absolute regard for Pinter, who happens to be a longtime friend. “You don’t ad-lib with Pinter,” Caine warned. “He sends out hit men.”
Sleuth opens in Toronto October 26
