solid and funny gangster movie

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2006)

Director Paul McGuigan tried his hand in a few genres with mixed success. I liked less his romantic drama 'Wickers Park' but I enjoyed the medieval mystery drama 'The Reckoning'. Here he enters the Terentino territory and the result is good entertainment if you are not intimidated by some violence on screen.
What looks like a story of mixed identity succeeds to become much more, thanks to a good and surprisingly funny dialog, interesting although somehow mannerist camera work, and very solid acting from Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu and Bruce Willis. Of course, I cannot forget Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley, who hardly can do something wrong on screen nowadays. The actors and the director seemed to have had fun doing the film, and the fun was passed to the viewers.