Style Over Substance, But an Entertaining Ride!

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2006)

OK, so "Lucky Number Slevin" falls easily into the Tarantino/"Pulp Fiction" mold, from it's graphic violence and plot twists, to the off-beat humor and quirky characterizations. And it won't take long to guess what the big 'secret' is that holds everything together (although it is intriguing to see who fits where in the scheme of things). Saying all this, however, I really enjoyed "Slevin"!
A lot of the entertainment of the film comes from first-rate actors obviously enjoying themselves. Trapped in a case of mistaken identity, Josh Hartnett, sporting a broken nose and lack of wardrobe in the early part of the film, takes every mishap and disaster with such aplomb that it's easy to see why mob bosses Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley look at him in stunned bewilderment (remember the gangster in the Marx Brothers' "Monkey Business" hiring the totally whacked-out Groucho and Company as shipboard bodyguards? Hartnett has that same "Are we on the same page?" attitude). Even more fun is the relationship between Hartnett and neighbor Lucy Lui (who has never been cuter or more energetic). When she walks into his 'borrowed' apartment, sees him naked, leaves, then pops back in, hoping to catch "the next show", you KNOW there is chemistry! And when was the last time you saw verbal sexual foreplay consisting of obscure James Bond trivia? That scene has such a Kevin Smith 'feel' to it that I looked for his name as a screenwriter!
Bruce Willis is also fun, as a very smug hit man (he seems nearly 'typed' as a hit man or cop, these days). Stanley Tucci, Danny Aiello, and "Forrest Gump's" Mykelti Williamson also shine (it was nice seeing Aiello and Williamson, who I haven't seen much of, of late).
Certainly, the ultimate 'pay-off' lacks the 'punch' of "Pulp Fiction", "Memento", or "Go", but it does reveal a compassion that is surprising, considering the body count!
Taken as a whole, Paul McGuigan's jaunt into 'Tarantino Land' is stylishly diverting!