Hitchcock, Tarantino, Besson and Ritchie at a bar after 2 a.m.

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2006)

I got the impression the film was a homage to Alfred Hitchock's work, when I saw the trailer to "Lucky Number Slevin". When I saw the film, I was right, but it also had some dashes of Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson, making it a fun, crackerjack crime drama.
A series of violent killings starts the ball rolling, then calms down to a tale, told by a "quiet before the storm" hit-man, Mr. Goodkat (a dapper Bruce Willis) to a non-assuming fellow in an airport terminal. The tale involves the execution of a middle-lower class family (wife, husband, son) after the father makes a bad bet on a racing horse.
Fast forward to Slevin (handsome Josh Hartnett, who rescues himself from the future acting troupe of the CW network), a jobless, robbery victim slacker who's visiting his friend in New York City. The friend's missing, but Slevin rests his laurels in his bud's apartment. Problem: Slevin's mistaken for the friend by two warring crime lords, the Boss (Oscar holder Morgan Freeman, who plays against type) and the Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley, another Oscar holder, who acts a wiser version of his Don Logan role from "Sexy Beast"). Thinking he's "Nick Fisher", both men want cash from Slevin or else, but things here aren't straight-forward, let alone the truth.
Director Paul McGuigan (he worked with Hartnett on "Wicker Park") has fun with the script by Jason Smilovic (the TV shows "Karen Sisco" and "Kidnapped"), noting that events of a mystery are better solved when not looking at them too closely, taking some steps back. Some have said the film's too clever for its' own good, trying to be another "Pulp Fiction" or "The Usual Suspects", but with expendable fare like "Step Up" and "John Tucker Must Die" infesting movie houses, "Slevin" has to be clever to separate itself from the muck.
The cast is game, especially the spunky Lucy Liu as a good-hearted medical examiner who befriends Slevin. It's so nice to see her in a non-Kung Fu role (yet "Kill Bill vol. 1" was fun), she's a goddess in black, high-heeled boots and a sweater and she shows potential to be in a Kevin Smith comedy.
Other cast members include Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, Big Night) as a hard-boiled cop; Mykelti T. Williamson (Forrest Gump, ATL) as one of the Boss's goons; Danny Aiello (Do The Right Thing, 29th Street) as a bookie and Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Alligator) as another cop who solves the mystery from afar. I can't tell you about the conclusion. It's too good for words.
In a medium filled with computer-animated bubblegum jars and shallow adolescent mirrors that amaze the moronity of moviegoers, "Slevin" is nicely and unashamedly smart and adult, hearkening back to the films from the 1930s to the 1970s. Make this film your lucky number.