Cast: – Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu, Sir Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci & Sam Jaeger
Director: – Paul McGuigan
Screenplay: – Jason Smilovic
Year Released: – 2006
Run Time: – 1hr & 52 Minutes
We all know almost every story moves like a tidal wave with a linear format. First comes the Exposition, then the Rising Action, then the Climax, then the falling Action and finally the resolution, or should we say the end. And then there are guys like Quentin Tarantino, who make it more exciting and sometimes mind numbing by narrating all those elements of the story in a non-linear format. However, on some rare occasions, a highly creative juggernaut comes up with a piece of fiction, that has all the elements of a story and everything going in a linear format, but just when you thought the resolution has come and the story has concluded, the creator breaks the conventional rules and comes up with a hard hitting anti- climax. An Anti-Climax is not just another twist or turn or a case of Double or Tripple Cross, it is an event or a sequence (in case of a movie) that completely changes the track of the story (a sort of a U-Turn) and you get to know that all the loopholes that were earlier in the story had actually some connection or the other with the event that’s gonna happen next. In fact, after the establishment of the anti-climax, the genre of the narrative becomes totally different than what you thought it was all along. Not every writer, even the best ones can come up with an efficient anti-climax, and not every anti-climax is hard to digest. In the world of cinema, the perfect examples of Anti-Climaxes have been in Cult Movies like Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects” and Chan wook-Park’s Divinely Korean Epic Film “Oldboy”. In both the movies, just when the viewer thought the end credits were about to roll, suddenly the viewer got the surprise of his/her life, that bowled him/her over.
Today I watched a very underrated & under-appreciated movie featuring an A-List Ensemble Cast and one of the perfect doses of Anti-Climax. The movie is called “Lucky Number Slevin” (and not seven). And I was indeed bowled over by the flick.
This film took me by surprise. It is an excellent movie with a compelling story, wonderful acting, and brilliant direction. I have not seen a gangster movie as intense since Infernal Affairs. It is the most complete and multi-dimensional Crime Thriller movie ever made after Al Pacino’s 1993 masterpiece “Carlito’s Way”. The movie is so damn intelligent that it is scary. It is a maze of really complex and it demands our complete attention for the whole running time. I got to admit that I watched this movie two more times, just to find a loophole. And I haven’t succeeded.
Without any spoilers, here is the plot. In Manhattan (New York), when the unlucky newcomer Slevin (Josh Hartnett) arrives in the apartment of his friend Nick Fisher (Sam Jaeger) for some leisure time, he is mistakenly taken as being Nick, who debts money to two powerful bosses of the criminal world. He is pressed by The Boss (Morgan Freeman) to kill the Homosexual son of The Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley, yup the same man who portrayed the iconic role of Gandhi in Richard Attenborough’s classic), as a payback for the death of The Boss’s son and pay off $33,000 to The Rabbi. Nick’s next door neighbor, Lindsay (a fast talking, incredibly seductive Lucy Liu), who works in the morgue, tries to help Slevin. Meanwhile, a mysterious man called Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis) is secretly plotting to kill Slevin and Slevin is under constant surveillance by the relentless Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci). As the movie’s Tagline goes, Slevin is at the “Wrong Place” at the “Wrong Time”.
From the first five minutes of the film, about five people die but you’re not so sure. Mainly, you’re not so sure of anything because this film is trying to be clever, trying to run you into false conclusions. On top of that, the film goes in a fast pace, so you will have to keep up and be on the edge of your seat. This film will keep your attention from top to bottom, provided you can stomach the bloody violence and sexual content.
The performances by the A-List Ensemble Cast are all First rate. Morgan Freeman is brilliant with his usual suave charm. Ben Kingsley is terrific as a Palestinian Crime Boss. Stanley Tucci’s character transforms perfectly from good to evil. Bruce Willis shows us again why he is a brilliant action star and why he is a natural born on-screen killer, something Sanjay Dutt & Akshay Kumar in Bollywood and Colin Farell in Hollywood can never ever achieve (And I mean it). But the movie belongs to the protagonist, i.e. Josh Hartnett in an author backed role he does full justice to.
This movie is a prime example of how a movie can be infinitely involving, thought provoking and artistic. This is the stuff great movies and masterpieces are made of. If you’re one of those people trying to look for a thriller that tries to keep you guessing until the end, you will love this movie. Lucky Number Slevin should be on the top of your list of intelligent and ingenious thrillers.
