Once upon a time, there lived a simple guy named Slevin (Josh Hartnett). At some point, the white streak of his life changed to black, and Slevin began such troubles that he even took a shovel and started digging in. It all started with the fact that he lost his job. Then they decided to demolish his house because of some new variety of termites. Well, it all ended up that Slevin found his girlfriend in a pose in which the phrase: “This is not what you think” – it seems extremely stupid. And then Slevin decided to fly to New York to his friend Nick Fisher, who said that he had found a job for him.
However, the Big Apple also did not meet Slevin with a white stripe. At first, when he left the airport, he was attacked by some drug addict, broke his nose and took his wallet. Then, when Slevin came to Nick’s apartment, in which Nick himself wasn’t there, he was seized by some rude guys, not even having to put on his pants after a shower, and brought to a cool authority named Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss took Slevin for Nick, who, as it turned out, owed the Boss 96 thousand dollars. And even though the Boss is kindly ready to round up the amount to 90 thousand, to Slevin, this figure seems unbearable. However, the Boss, still kindly, offers Slevin to forgive the debt. But on one condition: Slevin must kill the son of the old foe Boss – also a criminal authority named Rabbi (Ben Kingsley). Recently, the Boss’s son was killed, and he longs for revenge.
But the situation didn’t end there either since further rude Jews appeared behind Slevin, who brought him to the Rabbi. It turned out that Nick and the Rabbi owed money and a lot. And now Slevin, who can find himself at the wrong time in the wrong place, needs to get out somehow. The situation is complicated by the fact that a professional killer named Goodkat (Bruce Willis) revolves around Boss and the Rabbi, who also has some complaints about Slevin.
Actually, the movie features fixed horse racing, and throughout the movie, you will understand why that matters. It plays a pivotal role. It was very interesting for the director to choose horse racing because it is one of the first sports where people placed bets. One of the Canadian actors in the movie, Peter Outerbridge, portraying Detective Dumbrowski who alongside Detective Brikowski is involved in the investigation, became so interested in betting after the plot of the movie that he supposedly started searching casino bonuses in Canada to improve his earnings. Both detectives in the movie are very important, yet Detective Brikowski more, but that does not change the pace of the movie.
If I were told that Guy Ritchie made this film, I would quite believe it. Many of the moments in the film are very similar to Ritchie’s style, and the well-chosen music that accompanies the appearance of either black or Jewish fighters is a direct borrowing from Snatch. However, Ritchie was carried away by the sea together with a completely slurred revolver, so the Lucky Number of Slevin did not belong to him at all, but Paul McGuigan made this film, whose previous works were in a slightly different style.
Ritchie’s imitations in this film are not at all annoying. Because it is all done competently and efficiently. After all, what difference does it make who shot it? If only the movie looked good. But it looks, in general, quite good.
Lucky Number Slevin is a crime detective with a slight bias in a black-comedy comedy, the plot of which is twisted pretty dashingly. All the events in the film have their clear background, and the audience will be able to compose the full picture of what is happening only at the end of the film (except for, of course, those who managed to guess everything even before the explanation).
One could expect that Bruce Willis would bring the ironic component in this film – a master of criminal irony. However, this did not happen. Here, Willis plays a murderously serious killer (a pun came out quite by accident), and his role is quite episodic. However, it played well, although gloomy for a similar genre. But purely scenic much in this character has remained unsaid. For example, it is completely unknown why he was suddenly called Goodkat, but we did not receive an answer.
Of all the acting, the most pleasant impression was made by two authorities – Boss and the Rabbi performed by Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley. This is power, and these are characters! The Rabbi there generally gives out magnificent phrases with an incredibly impressive appearance. It is a pity that their roles are not at all the main ones.
Lucy Liu in the film played the role of the neighbour Nick, who starts up tricks with Slevin. She played well. The scene was especially tender and romantic when Slevin lost a towel in the eyes of a neighbour, and such a gamut of feelings was reflected in these eyes.
In general, in my opinion, it is quite a decent movie. I watched it with pleasure, considering the presence in the film of Josh Hartnett, and even in the title role. Since Guy Ritchie does not want to please the audience with such films, let it be Paul McGuigan. In the end, it doesn’t matter to us who directs this. The result is important.