MacGuffins

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2006)

Lucky Number Slevin  no, that's not a typo  will easily be dismissed as Tarantino-esquire. Starring Josh Hartnett as the unlucky title character, the film has more twists and turns than a high-tech roller-coaster, but it's just as much fun (and almost as immediately forgettable).
Directed with breakneck technique by Paul McGuigan from a clever though highly implausible script by Jason Slimovic, the film is cast, with one minor exception, impeccably. It marks the first role that justifies Josh Hartnett's hype, and bestows Lucy Liu the most normal  and incandescent  part of her career. It's a bonus that they have palpable on-screen chemistry, as well as great foils in the guise of Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman (though Ben Kingsley's high-strung performance as The Rabbi is a miscalculation). The film itself is stylized  written in high gumshoe/screwball mode, with a guided tour of ugly wallpapers throughout history as part of its hard-boiled milieu  though the actors' convictions root the topsy-turvy narrative in recognizable human terrain.
At its best, Lucky Number Slevin has the feel of a minor John Huston caper directed, with prankish glee, by Brian DePalma. It's a blood-revenge thriller with no depth, though there are reservoirs of feeling in Hartnett's and Liu's performances, as well as wit. Liu seems to the screwball manor born. And Hartnett prances around for nearly 30 minutes of screen time in nothing more than a long purple towel and a quizzical expression. He's such a game actor that his performance is both a put-on and homage to the long line of Macguffins in film noir. With, of course, a twist.