Monday, August 7, 2006

"LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN"

Josh Harnett, Sir Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci

"Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong number."

Slevin not Seven


A case of mistaken identity turns nasty when a guy gets caught in a bitter rivalry between two crime families. He does have a hot Asian love interest for company, though. While a smooth slick assassin and a pesky detective are also hot on his tails. No doubt about it. He is in a darn mess.

Sure, it sounds simple enough but it gets complicated with some twists and turns, so better stay alert. The plot evolves quite slowly at first. It takes its own sweet time to develop the story line that bounces from present time to the 70s, of course shown in flashback mode. It has its dark moments coupled with some dry humor scenes. The trick is to listen to the dialogue and the repartee between the characters. It does have a film noire tone to it. In some ways it reminds me of the Oliver Stone flick "U-Turn", but not really as well crafted.

The cast is pretty impressive with Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu and of course Josh Harnett who all give subdued performances to flesh out some of the strangest bunch of characters ever developed in a movie. You have The Rabbi with a homosexual son, The Boss, an Asian mortician, GoodKat the assassin and a dude named Slevin. They sound like they can be characters in a Quentin Tarantino movie. But thank God, they aren't.

This low budget independent film was first shown at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It is directed by Paul McGuigan who also pegged "Wicker Park" - a film which was also laden with twists after twists and happens to be one of my favorite movies.

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