Two extremely clever British men are in a game of trickery and deceit: a successful mystery novelist and a struggling actor who has stolen his wife's heart.
Kenneth Branagh's direction, its self-consciously skewed angles and surveillance-cam cutaways highlighting his weakness for the misplaced flourish, is more of a hindrance than a help.
Director Kenneth Branagh has mercifully pared the action down to 88 minutes (the first movie dragged on for 138), but the final act... still seems to go on forever.
Director Kenneth Branagh clearly is having fun navigating Tim Harvey's slick set design, but eventually the characters' deadly competitiveness becomes tedious.
Orlando Sentinel
November 09, 2007
It doesnt work, and the reasons why are no mystery, no mystery at all.
Groucho Reviews
March 10, 2008
The script includes a verbal motif that reminds us of what binds the film's four central talents together: 'I want to show you something.' [Blu-Ray review]
Clothes on Film
June 26, 2009
Idly plotted then tempered by a blunt ending. All of a sudden the viewer is left pondering 'eh?' as Pinter apparently run out of room on his pad.
Goofy art house tendencies (including an ill-thought dalliance with homo-eroticism) trigger a few giggles, yet the clever, crisply-acted power struggle seizes your attention
