Lucky Number Slevin Movie Review:


Are you one of those movie-goers who is annoyed when a film is too cheeky? You know those kinds of films where you never get caught up with the characters because they all think they are so smart. Well I had that problem with “Lucky Number Slevin” and not to mention I guessed the film’s final twist about five minutes in.

The film is basically a case of mistaken identity as Slevin (Josh Hartnett) is mistaken for his friend Nick who seems to be caught up with two rival crimelords (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley). It turns out that these two mobsters have been at war for decades and that one of them wants Slevin’s friend Nick to kill the other’s son. Is Slevin a patsy in a much larger plot? Can Slevin get away from these mobsters before he gets killed? Furthermore, what is it with this other assassin (Bruce Willis) shadowing Slevin’s every move?

As I watched “Lucky Number Slevin” I felt that it was like someone amateur was trying to be a Quentin Tarrantino or Elmore Leonard but never really grasped the full concept of that kind of character development. Sure the film has a lot of really good dialogue, Hartnett is adequate as the film’s hero and the almost robot quality of Bruce Willis is fun to watch but where is the magic and depth you get from watching this kind of film.

When watching this kind of film you need characters to do just more than spit clever dialogue and go through the motions. You need to understand what makes each of them tick and the dialogue should reflect that. Just because it’s clever doesn’t mean it does the character justice. I guess the only character in the film this probably doesn’t apply to is Slevin because he is a smart ass and his dialogue is perfect for that persona. As for anyone else, it kind of left me scratching my head.

Like M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 disaster “The Village”, I guessed every twist and turn and where the film was going from almost the beginning. I wanted the film to surprise me and show me a twist that was going to surprise me but it never did.

If you can get swept up in the film and ignore the fact that it is trying to be something that it just isn’t then I can say you will like this film. But if you’re a movie junkie like me the rent “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” when it comes out on DVD.

Dean Kish
(2.5 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer (dwkish@shaw.ca)

 

Slick, stylish and enjoyably disorienting, this is one of those crime thrillers that feels a lot more complicated than it actually is, simply because the filmmakers withhold key information from us at every turn.

Slevin (Hartnett) arrives in New York to visit a friend who's nowhere to be seen. Mistaken for the missing guy, Slevin is dragged before two mobsters: the Boss (Freeman) and the Rabbi (Kingsley), who've been violently feuding for decades. Slevin's friend owes a lot of money to these guys, and the Boss offers him a way out if he kills the Rabbi's son (Rubenfeld). Meanwhile, a shady assassin (Willis) seems to be pulling a lot of unseen strings. And Slevin is falling for his friend's neighbour (Liu).

There's a lot more to it, of course, but it's faux twistiness, as if the filmmakers have run their story through a blender, leaving cutaways, flashbacks, incomplete clips, you get the idea. When the very last piece finally falls into place, the tale reveals its startling simplicity. The result is an odd mix--entertaining and never remotely dull, but also over-clever and alienating. We never really like the characters, and we never feel sympathy for Slevin's predicament.

Performances are very good. Hartnett holds the film together with steely haplessness and raw physicality (he's wearing just a towel for the entire first act). Liu's casting is a stroke of genius, livening up the thankless girlfriend role into something truly engaging--the film's one sympathetic character. Willis is cool and elusive, two of his best attitudes. And Freeman and Kingsley are terrific, even if Kingsley can't resist the opportunity to chomp on every bit of scenery within reach.

Where it gets in trouble, besides the general smugness of it all, is in the rather shocking attitude toward violence. People are killed left and right, in brutal ways, and yet most of these cold-blooded murders are justified in the name of vengeance. As if slaughtering 20 or 30 people will actually give you peace of mind! It's a disturbing fantasy that makes the overall film impossible to accept as mere mindless entertainment.



Rich Cline

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Lucky Number Slevin and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.