Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Directed by Paul McGuigan
Written by Jason Smilovic
Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kinglsey, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu
Release Date April 7th, 2007
Published November 14th, 2007
Director Paul McGuigan is a rising star amongst hipster film critics like myself. His style is witty, ironic, romantic, referential and just plain hip. Most important to his hipster fans, McGuigan's films aren't all that popular at the box office which allows us the opportunity to claim him as our own and say that the masses simply don't get it.
We love it when we can do that, anyone who's heard me talk about the unpopular horror film The Descent knows that. So, I'm sure, that element plays at least a small role in my appreciation of the hip hitman flick Lucky Number Slevin, a comic, romantic modern noir with plenty of bodies, bullets and dark humor. A combination that always warms my heart.
Slevin Kellevra (Josh Hartnett) is having a bad couple of days. After losing his job he found his apartment building condemned. Going to stay at his girlfriend's place he finds her in bed with his best friend. Now having made his way to New York to stay with his pal Nick, Slevin finds himself mistaken for Nick by a pair of mob bosses each claiming Nick owes them large sums of money.
Morgan Freeman plays the Boss, head of a predominantly African American mafia who remains at all times locked away in his penthouse behind panes of bullet proof glass. His nemesis is the rabbi (Ben Kingsley) who lives directly across the street also in a penthouse, also behind bullet proof glass. The two have lived in harmony and fear of one another since ending their partnership some twenty years earlier.
Now both mobsters have competing interests in this kid Nick who is actually Slevin. Nick/Slevin owes The Boss 93,000 dollars and the rabbi somewhere in the 30 to 32,000 dollar range. The boss however, is the only one to offer a way out of debt that doesn't involve large sums of cash. If Slevin will kill the Rabbi's son, known to everyone but the Rabbi as The Fairy (go ahead and guess why he's called The Fairy), his debt will be wiped clean.
What Slevin doesn't know is that the man really pulling the strings on these dueling debt scenarios is a world renowned hitman named Goodkat (Bruce Willis). The hitman is targeting Slevin but the reasons why are unclear to either the Boss or the Rabbi and to us in the audience until the clever twists begin.
To give away too much, as recent commercials for the DVD release of Slevin have, would be a crime. Part of the fun of Lucky Number Slevin are the ways in which director McGuigan and writer Jason Smilovic twist and turn audience expectations, distracting us one way with clever dialogue and turning us the other way with unexpected bursts of violence or even romance.
While staying at Nick's apartment, Slevin strikes up an unexpected flirtation with Nick's neighbor played by Lucy Liu. Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu spark exceptional chemistry that is at first quite reminiscent of old school, fast talking, 1940's romantic comedy. As the relationship develops it becomes quite heated and becomes one of the more winning aspects of Lucky Number Slevin.
Josh Hartnett is becoming one of my favorite actors. I like the choices he makes as an actor. First with the offbeat romantic thriller Wicker Park, also directed by Paul McGuigan, in which he turned a typical thriller character into a curiously straight edge hero. Now with Lucky Number Slevin, Hartnett delivers another slightly offbeat performance.
Slevin is a character with a big mouth and no fear. He even has invented a little term for his inability to show fear, he calls it Ataraxia, it's fake don't bother looking it up. It means he simply has no fear whether it's facing down giant thugs or looking down the barrel of a shotgun or being told he has to kill another man. Hartnett plays this lack of fear to terrific comic effect and is aided greatly by a very witty and slightly off kilter script.
Bruce Willis is the rock of Lucky Number Slevin, always lurking in the background, occasionally filling in the holes of the plot but never revealing anything till it's necessary. Like his hitman character, Willis is efficient and expert in his performance. His description of a Kansas City Shuffle, a kind of con game, in the film's opening scene, is something Christopher Walken might have really enjoyed playing.
There are many pleasures to behold in this smart, hip and humorous hitman/mobster flick. Josh Hartnett is a star of the future and surrounded by Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and romantically paired with Lucy Liu, Hartnett's starpower and charisma get the perfect showcase. Director Paul McGuigan, like his star, is also on the rise. With Lucky Number Slevin and Wicker Park as his first two Hollywood pictures he is stoking the fire of hipster imaginations. I for one cannot wait to see what McGuigan, the hipster's director of the moment, will do next.
