Another case of Usual Suspects Syndrome

Rating: 5/10 (11 April 2006)

Lucky Number Slevin is the latest in a long line of movies that try to outdo everything else out there in the cleverness department and as a result, seems overdone. Ever since The Usual Suspects, it seems that more and more movies have become too desperate to trick or mislead the audience, and it seems that the people making these movies usually fail to realize what made the movies they're trying to emulate effective in the first place. The Usual Suspects was effective in misleading the audience because the plot is free of holes, and there is one well thought out twist that is believable and makes for a great ending. What happens in Lucky Number Slevin is that the twists are too plentiful, and the ones that aren't predictable are often trivial; they end up having very little impact and aren't satisfying.
The ending to Lucky Number Slevin is given away very early on. An astute viewer who has become used to seeing this type of movie will pick up on it right away. All that's left to us is to figure out which piece of the convoluted puzzle will be laid down next.
The dialogue tries relentlessly to be witty, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's downright tedious. The first scene in which Slevin meets the Rabbi is an example of the high, the first scene with Slevin meeting Lindsey is the low.
Director Paul McGuigan emulates Guy Ritchie's stylish visuals to some success, and guides the film about as well as the material allows. The saving grace here is the characters. Slevin, The Rabbi, The Boss and Goodkat all stand out, and Hartnett, Kingsley, Freeman and Willis all turn in commendable and charismatic performances. But by the end, particularly if you've figured out the scam from early on, the movie becomes a bit tiresome, not offering up any real surprises. While Lucky Number Slevin is not without its good points, at the end it seems like another case of a movie trying to be too clever for its own good, another movie with multiple twists that fail to result in any real surprises, and that just aren't that satisfying. As a viewer, the final result is "a been there, done that too many times" feeling, even though the film is not without its moments