Great cast revels in thriller
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 6, 2006
Satisfyingly twisty and operatically acted, “Lucky Number Slevin” makes fun out of very little. A mistaken identity is all that’s needed to open the door on this cockeyed story.
Everybody mistakes a young guy named Slevin (Josh Hartnett) for his friend, and the bad news for Slevin is that his friend owes almost $100,000 in gambling debts to a big, big, big gangster. The worst part is that there are actually two gangsters, mortal enemies who live in highly secure office towers across a Manhattan street, who take it upon themselves to use Slevin as a pawn in their game.
Slevin is also mistaken for the friend (some friend this is) by a next-door neighbor. She’s played by Lucy Liu, in a bubbly change-of-pace performance that leaves her lethal “Kill Bill” persona behind for the time being.
The gangsters are known as The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley, who’s now billed as Sir Ben Kingsley). Their enmity has recently ratcheted up, and it’s Slevin’s bad luck to catch them both on a bad day.
Mixed into this stew is a mysterious assassin (Bruce Willis, savoring every last morsel) we meet in the stylish opening sequence, and a cop (Stanley Tucci) attempting to figure out who Slevin is.
It gives nothing away to reveal that surprises will bloom as we get deeper into the story. We are warned of this in the opening sequence, when the Willis character gives a dissertation on “the Kansas City Shuffle,” a gangland technique that involves the art of creative diversion.
| Twisty: A sap (Josh Hartnett) accidentally gets caught in a gangland stand-off between two titans -chewily played by Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. Bruce Willis is also in the mix of this satisfyingly twisty comic thriller.
Rated: R rating is for violence, language Now showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett 9, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Mountlake, Meridian, Metro, Woodinville and Cascade Mall |
The film is that kind of diversion. Jason Smilovic’s script wants to get us looking one direction and then catch us with a “gotcha!” the other way. It succeeds often enough to please. It’s also a very “written” film, which means the dialogue is elaborate in a way that creates some fizz (part of which is the visible pleasure of the actors in saying it).
Director Paul McGuigan may or may not have anything beyond a flashy sense of style. But maybe that’s all this movie needs.
Hartnett is better than usual, and the scenes with Freeman and Kingsley are chewy with the sense of heavyweights getting a fun, light workout. It’s not major stuff (Kingsley’s role won’t make anybody forget his monstrous gangster in “Sexy Beast”), but it’s enough to carry their scenes into B-movie coolness.
Bruce Willis (left) and Josh Hartnett star in “Lucky Number Slevin.”
