Sleuth (Mankiewicz, 1972)

An older upper-class man entices his wife's young lover to commit the perfect burglary.

You can feel the theatre origin of the script extremely strongly throughout the script, with its crucial break of the first act right in the middle. It is highly interested in form as the second part of the film is basically mirroring the first one but with an unexpected twist.

The characters turn out to be much more embittered by their situations than both of them let on. They are rendered as rather caricatured versions of very realistic persons. This over-the-top characters, but played very matter-of-factly by the two actors took me quite some time to get used to. But once suspension of disbelief set in, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

The camera work didn't look great on my screen, the interiors felt very theatrical, with too much pointed light and the exteriors on the other hand looked a little flat. I would have preferred the outside scenes also harsher in lighting, with strong shadows, even film-noirish - but maybe conditions weren't too good for filming. And it might have added a macabre touch to the funny, but also slightly unsettling scene of the burglary.

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