InsidePulse Review – Lucky Number Slevin

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Image courtesy of www.impawards.com

Director :

Paul McGuigan

Cast :

Josh Hartnett……….Slevin
Stanley Tucci……….Brikowski
Sir Ben Kingsley……….The Rabbi
Bruce Willis……….Mr. Goodkat
Morgan Freeman……….The Boss
Lucy Liu……….Lindsey

With a lot of action thrillers, it’s easy to be able to follow a storyline without paying attention too hard. You might miss something here and there, of course, but the payoff at the end is still somewhat satisfying. Action thrillers tend to have that sort of formula, it seems, but it takes a good one to make it more complex while at the same time keeping the film interesting. Lucky Number Slevin is that movie.

Slevin stars Josh Hartnett in the title role as Slevin, a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. The friend who invited him to New York has disappeared, he lost his job, walked in on his girlfriend with another man and to top it off was mugged upon entrance into the Empire State. Things don’t get any easier for Slevin as the two main mob bosses of the city, The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and The Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley), are the collectors of two major debts Slevin’s friend has apparently skipped out on and want Slevin to pay them back. Throw in a world-class assassin known as Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis) and the inquisitive neighbor across the hall Lindsay (a criminally underused Lucy Liu), stir in some plot twists and turns straight out of The Usual Suspects and North by Northwest, sauté with some gratuitous profanity and stellar action sequences and one is left with an above average thriller.

And the film has all the ingredients for a disaster, as the plot is very thick with lots to pay attention to. This isn’t the sort of film that lays all the pieces out; it’s one where everything is there to see but you have to be looking for it. Paul McGuigan has a relatively large and complex story to tell, weaving in many twists and turns while keeping the story from going over the top. McGuigan doesn’t have much to his resume in terms of screen credits, but he handled a similarly themed film in 2004’s Wicker Park admirably. The only flaw in Wicker Park is the one that’s found in Lucky Number Slevin; both were competent thrillers that needed more time to develop to go from good to great. With so much going on, the film needs more time to develop in its middle act and McGuigan doesn’t have that luxury. With another 30 minutes or so worth of development the film could’ve taken a much more elongated step towards greatness.

The big luxury he does have is one of the best ensemble casts for an action thriller in some time. Most serious actors tend to take action thrillers or action movies as a time to kick back and relax, doing it more for the bigger check and the glamour of being in a big-budgeted film. It’s refreshing to see Academy Award winners Kingsley and Freeman ham it up in their roles as two mob bosses. Freeman looks as if he’s having the time of his life as a bad guy and Kingsley almost shamelessly throws himself into his role that it’s enjoyable to watch. They help to carry their junior members (Hartnett) around in some pretty dramatic scenes. Hartnett is a solid lead actor, if lacking the star power of his cast mates, but he’s good enough to let his elders dictate the pace and intensity of the scene and is able to match it on a relatively consistent basis. It’s also interesting to note just how little Bruce Willis is used, as he’s almost an afterthought in the scheme of things.

The attention to detail in the few action scenes is also rather remarkable as well. Willis, a veteran of action films, doesn’t move around or shoot like an action star would. He moves like an assassin would; measuring his paces with an icy calm precision of a hired killer, he’s allowed to play to his strengths as an actor in terms of physical presence and away from long-winded speeches. McGuigan has constructed the scenes to play to the film and to his cast using a minimalist approach, going for a more realistic methodology than the usual action clichés.

CATEGORY SCORE
STORY 8 / 10
ACTING 9 / 10
LOOK/FEEL 7 / 10
ORIGINALITY 6 / 10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 8.5 / 10