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Crime novel writer Andrew Wyke (Michael Caine) invites Milo Tindle (Jude Law), his wife's lover, to his house and instructs Tindle to rob his safe. Inside the wealthy author's huge, cold estate, this proposition launches the pair into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game in which the goal could be fun, emasculation or murder.

Big question: Can director Kenneth Branagh's remake of the 1972 flick—in which Caine played Tindle—increase the tension by shaving a two hours-plus film into less than 90 minutes?

Catch it: Weaving words around each other like spiders, Caine and Law make exceptional foes and spike every line with deception and scorn. "Sleuth" doesn't unmask the inner demons of warring conversationalists like the power struggle between Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller in "Interview," but it cuts deep into the unpredictable and possibly violent relationship between two men who love the same woman.

Skip it: If you don't want to hear Wyke's description of his wife's volatile nature—"One minute it's love. Ten minutes later it's contempt"—and wonder what happens after an hour!

Bottom line: The level of anxiety sinks when straight-faced trickery suggests that what's at stake may only be psychological, not physical. But it's a delicious truffle filled with poison, with a sleek beauty that makes "Sleuth" all the more dangerous.

Bonus: When Wyke says he can introduce Tindle to a number of famous people, the latter inquires about Kissinger, Dick Cheney, Madonna and Mike Tyson. If that's not a Johnny Carson routine waiting to happen, we don't know what is!

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