flawed thriller

Rating: 6/10 (14 July 2007)

An article with director Paul McGuigan on the casting of the movie told me the stars were won over by the script. That's hard to see.
It's a game of two halves; the set-up and the execution of a complex plan, with each half bringing it's own problems.
The opening hour concerns Slevins mistaken identity and his subsequent meetings with the two rival crime bosses. Slevin's "witty" nonchalence during these meetings lends an air of predictability to the film's 2nd half. The final 40 minutes of which become an agonisingly patronising walk through of events.
Yet for it's faults, the movie has it's charm. The script ties up well, and Lucy Lui gives a surprisingly great performance as the love interest. She is a shining light above some awfully mediocre turns from the other stars (I can never buy Morgan Freeman as a bad guy).
In the end though i think it is Paul McGuigan's direction, which at times shows real class, that raises lucky number slevin over other movies in this genre.