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Tuesday, 27 February 2007

Lucky Number Slevin (DVD)

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley

Rated: 18

Story: Slevin Kelevra (Hartnett) gets mistaken for a man who owes money to two feuding crimelords (Freeman & Kingsley). He has to play them off against each other in order to survive. He is helped by a new girlfriend (Liu) and hindered by the schemes of a bigshot assassin (Willis). He talks a lot.

Comments: This starts well. The storyline whips all over the place in an intriguing fashion and the dialogue is fast and witty. Slevin's predicament is amusing and, as things get more complicated, it becomes obvious that a really clever solution is needed. Everything appears set to build to a tense climax...

...but then doesn't. The film spends two-thirds of its length jumping around in time, keeping us as confused as Slevin, and then takes half an hour explaining everything in tremendous detail. Worse than that, the trick's on us, not just the crimelords.

Everything's just about plausible but doesn't seem very likely and isn't very satisfying. It's an average story that's told back to front in an effort to make it more interesting and less nasty. Unfortunately this just makes it disappointing as well as distasteful and uninspired.

Explosions: One.
Gory Deaths: A few.
Fast, Hip Dialogue: Constant.
Tiresome Plot Twists: An excess.
Unconvincing Facial Hair: Almost worth waiting for.

Rating: 2/5

Labels: film review, thriller