Saturday, 18 September 2021 18:55

Lucky Number Slevin







LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN

US, 109 minutes, Colour.
Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Stanley Tucci, Peter Outerbridge.
Directed by Paul Mc Guigan.

If you enjoy movies that show characters playing confidence tricks, especially on deserving victims, and enjoy being the victim of a clever screenwriter and a director (Scottish Paul Mc Guigan) who is playing tricks on the audience, then Lucky Number Slevin is well worth the visit – except to note that it is dealing with quite ruthless gangsters who are not troubled by scruples about violence and revenge.

A 1980s prologue sets up the sting, all to do with bets, bookies and numbers gangsters. Twenty years later, it all comes to a head, especially with the now reclusive rival thugs (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley) setting up hitman Bruce Willis (who really is excellent at this kind of role) to avenge their son’s deaths. Into it all stumbles an unlikely lad, Slevin (Josh Hartnett) who finds himself suddenly abducted (to show the poor man’s troubles, he spends the first 30 minutes or more in a towel, including the abduction and threatening interview). Across the hall, lives a morgue physician (Lucy Liu) who comes to borrow a cup of sugar. They both get embroiled in a series of dangerous adventures, which also include Stanley Tucci as the detective in pursuit.

It’s all a case of mistaken identities and part of the entertainment is sorting out who is who and what is what. Jason Smilovic’s screenplay is also full of witty one-liners and off-hand remarks, questions answered by questions and exclamations that keep us attentive.

The two gangster chiefs ham it up a little, especially in the melodramatics when they find themselves trussed up together. Josh Hartnett is better than usual. And, even though you might start to realise where the twists are, it’s interesting to see how it is all resolved, plus a couple of surprises.

1.A popular gangster film? Vengeance thriller? The conventions of the gangster film and the revenge theme? The twists? The cons – of the characters? The conning of the audience?

2.The New York settings, the 1970s, garages, homes, the races? The 21st century? New York City, the apartments and streets, restaurants, the morgue? The musical score?

3.The quality of the screenplay: the verbal wit, wordplay, rhetorical questions and answering questions with questions? Movie references? Entertainment?

4.The structure of the film: the murders, the airport and the Kansas City Shuffle story by Mr Goodcat? The flashbacks and the elaboration of his story? Nick’s death? The other deaths? The introduction to the Boss and to the Rabbi? Slevin’s predicament (and the flashbacks illustrating them – later discovered to be lies and tricks)? The intercutting of Mr Goodcat and Slevin, with the Boss and the Rabbi? The death of the son of the Rabbi and their combining forces, the vengeance, the explanations, Slevin’s change? The shooting of Brikowski in the car? The complications of Lindsey and her death? The happy ending?

5.Audience response to vengeance films, the motivations of revenge? The Boss’s reference to Lex Talionis? The issues of justice and revenge, legal corruption, brutality, the law?

6.The flashback to the 1979 story: the nice father, his relationship with his wife and son, taking them out? The doctor, the doping of the horse, his loose tongue, the prostitute, her phone calls, the information, people overhearing? Max betting all his money on the race? The horse running well, its collapse? His losing everything? The death of the bookmaker – and the flashback to his explanations of the kind of people that Max would be in debt to? Roth’s death? The torture of Max, the Rabbi and the Boss, the decreeing that his family should die, his wife’s death, the out of town killer for the son? Audience expectations that the boy would die – or not?

7.Nicholas Fisher, at the airport, his listening to the story? His death? ‘’There was a time…”? Slevin and his arrival in the apartment, his having a shower, meeting Lindsey, borrowing some sugar? His face being punched, broken nose? The real Nicholas and the information about his crime, his death? Goodcat and Henry and their plan to use Nicholas, getting the information about the betting books, his ninety-six thousand dollar debt?

8.The Boss, Morgan Freeman’s screen presence, diction, voice? His history, the numbers game? His paranoia, staying in his apartment, twenty years? His henchmen and their punching out Slevin? Taking him (in his towel) to the Boss? The issue of the debt? Mistaken identities – and Slevin playing on the identity of the Boss’s assistant? The contract on the Rabbi’s son? Slevin’s reaction? The Boss’s son and the murder? The irony of Goodcat and Henry making the plan, the pressures on the Boss and the Rabbi? Their sons being killed? The revelation to the Rabbi about his son’s death?

9.The Rabbi and his double life, as religious leader and as criminal, his observations about the contradictions? Nicholas and his debt? The Rabbi’s paranoia, his history, closing himself in his apartment? The war with the Boss? Articulate? His love for his son, not knowing he was gay? The son, at the restaurant, Slevin following him, the encounter in the toilet? The son’s death? The Rabbi and the Boss, their being put together, their final dialogue, their deaths?

10.The array of thugs, the Boss’s henchmen, slow-witted, tough? Their turning up, with Slevin, their deaths? The assistant to the Boss – and the wordplay about mistaken identities? The Israelis and their working for the Rabbi, their deaths?

11.The criminals, the keeping of the books, Slevin killing them? Goodcat and his killings?

12.The picture of the police, Brikowski, his assistant? The puzzle about the deaths? Brikowski and his wanting to know the truth – and the irony of his formerly working for the Rabbi? Following Slevin, the means of surveillance, the pick-up, Brikowski’s visit to the morgue, discussions with Lindsey? His listening to the phone conversation in the car – and Slevin killing him?

13.Slevin, his character, his story, the flashbacks? The false flashbacks about his being mugged and his nose being broken? His being in the room, wearing the towel for about thirty-five minutes of the film, the device of making him look like a comic character rather than sinister? Even going to the Boss in the towel? Lindsey and the borrowing of the sugar, his response to her, the screwball comedy touches, his disappearances, her going to sleep, the mystery of the wrong man, his abductions? The relationship with Lindsey, sexual? The verbal patter? Slevin and his way with words, turning questions on questions? His following the Rabbi’s son, in the toilet? His finally being groomed, going into the room with the Rabbi, the killings? His meeting Goodcat and the audience realising the alliance between them?

14.Bruce Willis as Goodcat, the sleek killer? A convincing performance? The opening, meeting the real Nicholas, telling him the story, the flashbacks, his threatening Henry with the gun? Killing Nicholas? His dealings with the Boss, dealings with the Rabbi, playing them off against each other? Killing the Rabbi’s son at the apartment? His liaison with Henry, not killing him? Caring for him, driving him away, giving him his father’s watch? The details of the planning over the years? The execution? His going to the morgue, being seen by Lindsey, the threat to Lindsey and going to the morgue to shoot her? Her survival, Slevin’s explanation, Goodcat allowing them and her to live?

15.How convincing was the transition from Slevin and his mishaps to the killer? The development of character? Screwball comic touches to the ruthless, to vengeance? Killing the Boss and the Rabbi, sitting them in the chairs, their having to turn to each other to talk, their arguing with each other, realising the betrayals? Putting the bags over their heads? Their dying? The twist with Brikowski as a murderer?

16.How satisfying a confidence trick played on the characters as well as on the audience?
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