Lucky Number Sleven
by James Roland
What do Elmore Leonard, Guy Ritchie, and Quentin Tarantino all have in common? As hard as they’ve tried to reinvent the crime thriller, none of them have come close to Lucky Number Slevin (2006 Capitol Films).
The advent of the superslick, ultraviolent whodunit came about when teenage boys started kicking the seats in front of them with pent up testosterone during the opening weekend of Reservoir Dogs. Since then, MTV editing, split screen, retro set design, cool, stylized dialogue, and plots with no regard for chronology have been the staple of a new, nameless subgenre. Too hip to be Noir, too dark for Comedy Adventure, entries range from the standard (Get Shorty and Out of Sight), to sweet and G-rated (Ocean’s 11), to cynical and mature (Pulp Fiction), to . . . well . . . British (Snatch and Layer Cake).
Slevin writer Jason Smilovic sat back and watched all these entries over the past decade. Now he’s managed to take the best parts of each and create a sublime, almost flawless script.
Smilovic’s characters are cool, quirky, and complicated. Each one, even characters who never speak or move — just stay asleep in an airport seat while the scene goes on around them — has a backstory and integral role in the plot.
Slevin starts off with a simple plot: a newcomer is mistaken for his missing friend who owes money to various gangsters. But, by the end, this story feels as complicated as advanced chess. Some of the twists are standard and others fantastically original. Smilovic walks a fine line between spoon-feeding the audience members and leaving them scratching their heads during the final credits, but he pulls it off in the end
A list of amazing characters and performances populate this crazy story. Morgan Freeman shows new life in his turn as a mafia crime boss. Sir Ben Kingsley, who belongs in the upper echelon of actors with Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep, gives an astounding performance as his nemesis, a rabbi and fellow crime boss.
The supporting cast also makes a strong showing, with honorable mention going to Mykelti Williamson as the hilarious thug Sloe. He and his slightly smarter partner Elvis (Dorian Missick) are spot-on, giving names and faces to the usual ‘nameless henchmen.’
But the two best performances come from Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu. Hartnett brings needed innocence to his character while balancing a darker side. Slevin gets punched, stripped, dragged, thrown, coerced, blackmailed, and teased, but, despite his persistent claim of innocence, he refuses to hold back his sharp, sarcastic tongue. This makes him the perfect foil for Lindsey (Lucy Liu in what is definitely the best performance of her career). Lindsey is the ultimate girl next door: irrepressibly cute and sharply intelligent. She falls for Slevin, and the chemistry that erupts between the two actors left me gaping. In fact, their pairing is so perfect that it warrants a string of future movies together. This could be the next Tracy and Hepburn or Bogart and Bacall.
Take all this and add eye-popping set design, culled loyally from the script with a unique beauty and texture usually reserved for fantasy films. Every strip of retro-wallpaper, each custom crime lord lair, is crafted with meticulous detail.
Director Paul McGuigan weaves all of these elements together and handles the complex story with finesse. With his guidance Lucky Number Slevin achieves what few movies of any genre have managed.
Perfection.
