Gets a 7, but grudgingly - read on to find out why

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2014)

I first saw the trailer to Lucky Number Slevin and was intrigued enough to watch the film itself. In many ways that trailer suggested the film was a 'comedy/drama' (as those who like to categorise would have put it) and so does the first half of the film. After a rather bloody prologue which sees something like four or five gruesome murders, we are presented with another intriguing sequence which also concludes with a murder.
None of the foregoing was particularly funny, but when we get to what seems to by the nub of the film, Scottish director Paul McGuigan does most certainly seem to be playing if for laughs: naïve chap turns up in New York to see a friend, and after the mugging to which all naïve young chaps are prone on their first time in New York, finds his friend's apartment empty and no sign of his friend. Never mind because he is immediately adopted by his friend's 'kooky' neighbour, and then just as quickly is visited by two black hoods who drag him off to see their boss.
The inane banter between the two hoods and the fact that nabbing our naïve young hero is so obviously a question of mistaken identity, as well as the 'smart' dialogue between the grizzled old black gangster boss all do signal – in film terms – that we are watching a comedy, or at least a comedy of sorts. The hero gets to meet another gangster, the deadly rival of the black boss and by the end of the day is tasked both with killing the second boss's son and finding $30,000 to pay off a debt.
And so it goes on, from one mistaken identity to another with an added layer of complication in that boss gangster bosses are under surveillance by New York's finest who are baffled as to who this chap is. It rambles on from one 'kooky' set-up to the rest until it all takes a rather darker turn which took me rather by surprise and will probably do the same for you, too.
In the end everything is explained and – at least in its own terms as a film – there are no loose ends. I have to admit that it is all rather well done, with some great actors – Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley (sorry, Sir Ben, Sir Ben Kingsley) and that old trouper Stanley Tucci (who, in my view, never gives a bad performance, by the way – and some intriguing scenes. And yet . . .
The film is most certainly not a comedy/drama by the time the credits roll – there is nothing very funny about the murderous violence that takes place – and for me at least the whole initial comedy schtick left an odd taste in my mouth, and the whole plot's resolution was, for me, just a tad too contrived: not just neat, too neat.
Still in the first instance Lucky Number Slevin is intended as entertainment and it most certainly does entertain, though it has to be said, more in the way of a comic book than a serious thriller. But then that is what it is all about. I have given this film a 7 – it is handsomely made – but in an odd way a little reluctantly. Yes, it's good, but I have a sneaking suspicion it might well have been better had a little more thought been given to the script and had everyone involved just been a little less pleased with how clever they are (because that's the feeling I get.)