Lucky Number Slevin
Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu
Written by Jason Smilovic and Directed by Paul McGuigan


First of all, let’s get one thing straight. I am a sucker for dark comedies with cool trailers that feature a slick tune with fun percussion instruments and an ensemble cast of players shooting off cheeky one-liners. Think anything from Tarantino and his British shadow, Guy Ritchie. So needless to say there are probably a lot of suckers like myself for these kinds of movies since Tarantino is practically a rock star and Guy Ritchie, well, Guy Ritchie married Madonna. Enough said. So, when a movie comes along like Lucky Number Slevin, us suckers are so there and we expect a lot when the lights go down.

The first thing I noticed about this film is how literally it took the joining of two genres. When someone refers to a genre of film that is made up of two genres, for example, a “romantic comedy”, we usually assume that the film is a nice blend of each of those genres. With Lucky Number Slevin they take that theory a little too, well, as mentioned, literally. The film can be categorized as a “dark comedy” and indeed it is split right down the middle as one. For the first part of the film it is a comedy. For the second part of the film it is dark. Very dark. So that whole idea of blending genres into one harmonious vehicle kind of went out the window. Actually under all the misguided advertising for this film which, depending on which show you were watching when you saw the trailer, was sold as either a comedy crime caper or as a dramatic crime thriller, but in my books I saw it is as a dark comedy.

Josh Hartnett (40 Days and 40 Nights, Pearl Harbor) is perfectly cast as Slevin, the not-so-lucky guy as opposed to what the title of the movie would suggest, who ends up in quite a predicament with two crime bosses. Crime boss number one is known as “The Boss” and is played beautifully by Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby). Crime boss number two is played by the majestic Sir Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast) and is known as “The Rabbi”. Why is he called “The Rabbi”? Well, because he is one. Watch the film and you will get it. Now what do two big city crime bosses want with a guy like Slevin? The answer is they don’t technically want him. Because he had an incredibly unlucky week where he lost his job, found his girlfriend getting nasty with another guy, and got mugged -- he goes to find some comfort by visiting his old friend Nick. Now Nick happens to be a big gambler and unfortunately a big loser as well. So the crime bosses actually want Nick, but with the horrible luck that Slevin has, he gets mistaken for Nick, who happens to be missing, and hence beings the premise of the film where Slevin must payback The Boss by carrying out a hit on The Rabbi’s gay son for him and he must payback The Rabbi by coming up with some big cash in a small amount of time.

But don’t feel too bad for Slevin. Nick’s neighbor, which is now technically Slevin’s neighbor, happens to be a sweet and quirky Asian girl by the name of Lindsey, played by Lucy Liu. Lindsey, who works at the city morgue, seems to be on the lookout for adventure and love, so when Slevin explains his case of mistaken identity and the missing case of Nick, she is all over him and his situation. Oh, and wait, there is Mr. Goodkat. The infamous assassin played by the infamous Bruce Willis, who is like the key to everything since he seems to be pulling-the-wool over all the characters in this story.

If you known these kinds of films as aforementioned, you know that the story is never as simple as it appears (I don’t want to be a jerk and give you a bunch of spoilers). You also know that you can expect some great twists, great violence, good chuckles, and fantastic dialogue. Although I did mention Tarantino’s name earlier and his name is synonymous with great dialogue; I would have to say that the dialogue in Lucky Number Slevin is not quite Tarantino, but more David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, Heist). It is less Tarantino in the sense that Tarantino likes to have his characters deliver grand monologues filled with pop culture references, whereas with Lucky Number Slevin, the dialogue consists more of witty uzi-like back-and-forth wordplay. Some of the scenes are paced a bit slow and get a little carried away with dialogue battles, but the scenes of violence and aggression that accompany them more than make up for that.

If anything, Lucky Number Slevin is definitely worth checking out for the playful and fun dialogue. The plot is complicated and a little two “sectional” to make a coherent and solid film -- but again, like I said, I am a sucker for these kinds of films and if you are too, it is definitely worth checking out.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Great action, hilarious one-liners, and very cool characters.

The Bad: Story structure went out the window when making this film.

The Law: If you like cheeky dialogue and cool Tarantinoesque films, then definitely worth checking out.