Pretty good, but too clever for it's own good

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2006)

Although I only had caught TV spots and screen-shots from Lucky Number Slevin, I avoided watching the trailer like the plague. It looked interesting enough, with a great cast, so I didn't want to ruin it. After managing to see it, I'm glad that I missed the trailer, but still a little disappointed with the final result.
After a short interlude (of which I will not spoil), we are introduced to Slevin (Josh Hartnett). He's in a bathrobe, has a broken nose and has just gotten into New York. He's there to meet with his friend Nick Fisher, whose apartment Slevin is in, but no trace of Fisher. After some knocking, Lindsey (Lucy Liu) enters the picture, a neighbour who is looking for Nick, but just decides to flirt with the stranger instead. After she leaves, he gets another knock, and its the goons of a local crime boss aptly named, The Boss (Morgan Freeman).
After taking the smart-ass Slevin into their car in the bathrobe, and breaking his nose some more, he meets with The Boss, and is informed of a rather large debt Fisher owes. The Boss doesn't seem to care that Slevin is not Fisher, but offers him a way out of the debt, by killing the son of another crime boss, The Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley as he is credited in the credits). Slevin agrees, only to return home and be picked up by The Rabbi's boys. After he meets with The Rabbi, he finds out Fisher has another large debt to pay, and The Rabbi only gives him a few hours to get it to him.
Still following? Need I even mention Bruce Willis' random hit-man character Mr. Goodkat who keeps popping around every corner, or Stanley Tucci's Detective Brikowski who is hot on the trail of Slevin? The film just seems to tie more and more characters to this one confusing plot line, and it seems like the addition of Liu was simply just to try and make sense of the whole thing, while proving as a mere somewhat good love interest for Hartnett.
The film isn't too hard to follow, but as the story keeps rolling around and around to its conclusion where anything that seems a tad bit coincidental, or just does not seem clear, is completely crystal clear to that point that it becomes a little too clever for its own good. Things are all tied together (some for little to no reason), no plot point is left unturned (even the ones that make absolutely no sense until later, even then staying ludicrous), and in the end, it just becomes a nice tight little package. You cannot argue with this unfortunately, but for a movie like this, it ties the package way too tight. The film needs to breathe, and unfortunately, the film's plot line will not allow for it.
If the substance is a little shifty, the style makes up for it. The cinematography is topnotch, and the colours are just fabulous. The film is totally anti-noir, but it takes the concept of film-noir, and adds colour to it. Sets are well photographed, and the costumes all match excellently. Hartnett's consistent nose injuries are also of note, as they contrast to the backgrounds wonderfully. The cast's main players are all very good, for as long or as small their roles are. The film's plot line may seem murky, but the dialogue is great. The delivery of the script's lines are all great, and all the witty smart ass quips are nailed to a tee (even though some of the conversations go around and around and around to the point of being like a conversation with David Caruso).
It's not that Slevin is a bad movie. It's a great movie that is just too clever for it's own good. A little bit of touch-ups here and there to the plot would make the movie so much more better. It's an exercise in the reasoning of why tying everything up by the end, just does not always work.
7.5/10.