Lucky
Number Slevin is an intricate puzzle of a movie that is quite often too complex
(and self conscious) for it’s own good. It works awfully hard to fool the
audience, and sometimes this proves to be distracting. Thankfully though, Lucky
Number Slevin is very entertaining, thanks mostly to a diverse and effective cast
that appear to be having an enormously fun time.
In
Lucky Number Slevin, Josh Hartnett is Slevin, a young man who’s about to
have one unlucky day. After using a buddy’s apartment to clean himself up
after a rough morning, he is quickly caught up in an enormously complex case of
mistaken identity - one that brings him face to face with a couple of feuding
mob bosses (wonderfully played by veterans Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley), a
soft spoken, but extremely deadly assassin (Bruce Willis), and a quirky but cute
mortician (a lively Lucy Liu).
Paul
McGuigan (who also directed Hartnett in Wicker Park) is clearly inspired by noir
thrillers, but the movies Lucky Number Slevin most reminded me of were Bryan Singer’s
outstanding Usual Suspects and Brian Helgeland’s underrated Payback. With
a twisty plot structure and numerous characters, this thriller offers up moments
that don’t appear to make sense at first glance, but by the end of the picture,
everything comes together. With the aid of assured cinematography and crisp editing,
McGuigan has fashioned a slick and effectively suspenseful number.
Screenwriter
Jason Smilovic does a good job keeping the audience guessing, but Lucky Number
Slevin still requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief. Without giving
too much away, things ends a little too conveniently pat. There are plot threads
in this film that are wrapped up a little too neatly, and the fashion in which
a certain character so precisely calculates everything to perfection, left me
scratching my head. I had a similar reaction to David Fincher’s The Game.
Furthermore, Smilovic appears hellbent on spelling everything out for the audience.
Sometimes a little ambiguity is good. Still, I like the overall tone of the movie,
and I got a big kick out of the little winks at the numerous films that clearly
inspired this movie (watch for references to James Bond and North By Northwest).
The
usually blasé Hartnett is slightly more animated here than he's been in
the past, but it is the stellar supporting cast that really give Lucky Number
Slevin it’s kick. Freeman and Kingsley are wickedly entertaining as two aging
crime bosses who think they know everything. Kingsley in particular has a blast
as a Jewish mobster out to protect his gay son. Lucy Liu is a ball of unlimited
energy as love interest Lindsey. Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump) is a hoot as
a dim-witted henchman. Stanley Tucci is at his manic best as the confident cop
whose in constant pursuit of Slevin. Finally, we have Bruce Willis who, despite
a role that requires very little emotion, manages to bring a strange sort of sweetness
to his deadpan assassin Mr. Goodkat.
Lucky
Number Slevin suffers from an overly long running time and it doesn’t have
the balls to follow through on a potentially gutsy move in the final act, but
ultimately, I was entertained. At the very least, it’s a major step up for
McGuigan whose Wicker Park was a fairly dull tale about obsession. With this effort,
the director really allows his expert cast to shine, and the end result is a labored
but very entertaining movie that constantly challenges the audience to figure
out what might happen next. The Usual Suspects it ain’t, but it’s fun
nevertheless.
