neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Lucky Number Slevin
	Paul McGuigan Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu 2006		It's not quite a maxim, but you can't have too many good thrillers about criminal scams, heists and the unsavory ministrations of mob kingpins. (Think "The Sting," "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "The Good Thief," "Layer Cake," etc.) Thus, it's easy to gamble on "Lucky Number Slevin," which boasts a high-profile cast — Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Stanley Tucci and Lucy Liu — in the service of a mordantly comic script built on interlocking cons and schemes. Mistaken for another young man while visiting New York City, the hapless Slevin (Hartnett) gets caught in the crossfire of a gang war between rival crime lords (Freeman, Kingsley) who were once allies. Complicating matters are the coldly efficient assassin Mr. Goodkat (Willis) and a dogged police detective (Tucci), both on Slevin's tail. The principals bound and rebound from deceptions and betrayals at a lively clip, only interrupted by the expected bursts of violence and some fresh, even goofy character notes. Scottish director Paul McGuigan deftly moves his actors through the maze of plot points. Hartnett's callowness serves him well here, as do the larger-than-life screen presences of Kingsley and Freeman. And Willis does cruel, informed menace with his usual élan. McGuigan faltered with his previous movie, the nebulous American mystery "Wicker Park." Here, he's on more familiar turf; 2000's rousing "Gangster No. 1," his best work to date, traced a power struggle in the London underworld from the 1960s to the 1990s. Flaunting its intricacy and grounded by the skill of its cast, the audacious "Lucky Number Slevin" circumvents (or ignores) its implausibilities, delivering sufficient thrills and confounding its audience until the final scene.


	Sunday, November 17, 2024





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