Sleuth

Taking the role formerly inhabited by dear, dear Larry Olivier, Caine now plays egotistical crime novelist Andrew Wyke, leaving Law to have a crack at his adversary: hairdresser/struggling actor Milo Tindle.

Wyke’s wife has left him for Milo. Hoping to hurry along the divorce, Milo comes to visit the author at his electronically fortified country manor.

Of course, the devious Wyke is not about to give up his missus that easily. Motivated by humiliation, he lures Milo into a staged burglary. It will supposedly benefit them both but naturally turns out satisfactorily only for the old goat.

Then a seedy detective shows up and it becomes abundantly clear that Wyke’s little game is not over by a long chalk...

Putting Schaffer's cunning set-up in the hands of venerable man of letters Harold Pinter has produced interesting results.

Which version of the play that gave Morrissey the lyric “a jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place” definitely lies in the eye of the beholder.

But when the stars, director and screenwriter can boast two Academy Awards, twelve nominations and a Nobel Prize for Literature between them, it has to be worth a look, hasn't it?

Elliott Noble