Shadow Lives.

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2016)

It's hard to judge this movie because, in a fundamental way, it's really two movies -- one a casual look at mistaken identity out of "North By Northwest" -- the other a complicated story of murder and revenge, out of "The Usual Suspects." The performances are excellent with a few exceptions. One of the exceptions is Josh Hartnett, on whom the momentum of the story depends. He's inoffensive as the ordinary young guy mistaken for somebody who owes high-echelon gangsters a load of money, but he's something of an embarrassment as the bitter and sadistic killer of the climax.
Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley are opposite numbers at the top of the racketeering business, and both are superb. Both are highly respected actors and here they get to show why. Freeman's two black goons are convincing as well, but Kingsley's are not. Kingsley is a rabbi. His goons are orthodox Jews and orthodox Jews are simply not menacing, even when they punch you out. Kingsley is hilarious in the penultimate scene. He's strapped into a chair and his killer is explaining why he must die. Kingsley is desperate to talk his way out of this inconvenient situation. He haggles in whispers. He tries gallantly to gesture with his arms and hands but he can't because they're taped to the arms of his chair.
It sounds a bit like a joke so far, and for the most part it is, despite the broken nose and the punches in the stomach.
The direction owes something to the Coen brothers, and if you have to owe something, the Coens are much better than Freeman or Rabbi Shlomo. Art direction should also take a bow. Lots of imagination has been expended on the set dressing. The screenplay is fine, the dialog has some nice exchanges and wisecracks, until the end, when it changes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to something more like "Reservoir Dogs." That ending, and Josh Hartnett's light weight performance, keep it from being the thoroughly enjoyable parody of high-end crime that it might have been.