Lucky Number Slevin

Scottish filmmaker McGuigan follows up his vapid remake of ‘L’Appartement’ with another slick, hollow exercise in cinematic sleight of hand that mixes ‘The Sting’ with ‘The Usual Suspects’ to no great effect. Purposely convoluted and needlessly violent, this bizarrely titled thriller revolves around an apparent case of mistaken identity as Josh Hartnett’s Slevin is dragged from a friend’s New York apartment to separate audiences with rival crime bosses – the ‘Boss’ (Morgan Freeman, coasting) and Schlomo, aka the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley, dodgy accent) – and then informed that he (or rather his friend) owes them each money. And payback has a price. The Boss wants Schlomo’s son dead. If Slevin kills him, all debts will be waved. The Rabbi, meanwhile, just wants his $33K back… Caught between the absurdist and the semi-serious, the tortured, labyrinthine twists of Jason Smilovic’s not-as-smart-as-it-thinks-it-is script gradually reveal themselves in ever more ludicrous fashion, leaving the film to spiral under layers of arty pretension and narrative flip-flopping. A fact not helped by McGuigan’s ‘flashy’ direction nor by the set designer’s over-reliance on loud, wavy wallpaper. Only Lucy Liu’s insanely perky neighbour emerges with any real credit.