Lucky Number Slevin
Back in 1995, “The Usual Suspects” blew my mind, like it did to a lot of people. It was clever, it used an unconventional (at the time) narrative structure and it played fair with all its twists and turns.
Soon after, it was totally overshadowed by all the filmmakers trying to do their versions of “Pulp Fiction,” but it was inevitable that someone, someday, would channel “The Usual Suspects.” And that’s just what “Lucky Number Slevin
That’s not a bad thing: I love “The Usual Suspects,” but just like the films created by all the would-be Tarantinos, “Lucky Number Slevin” is a lesser film than the one it apes. It’s a bit too clever with the dialogue — which, despite deleted scenes showing how much many of the scenes were cut down, could still use still more cutting — and the character bits are more clever than plausible much of the time. What mobsters would really be called the Rabbi and the Boss? The stylized nature of the film is either too stylized for a realistic film or not stylized enough for a less realistic one.
That said, it’s an entertaining ride. The cast is uniformly strong, and it’s a treat to see Lucy Liu playing the girl next door (literally) instead of Yet Another Asian Dominatrix Type. The mob bosses are played with well-credentialed scenery chewing relish by a pair of Oscar-winners (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley). And if Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis don’t cover themselves in glory, they turn in solid performances.
It doesn’t escape from the long, long shadow of “The Usual Suspects,” but “Lucky Number Slevin” is a fun (if overly self-aware) film in the same vein.
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