.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO New York City Shuffle Taking us for a good ride. BY MOLLY TEMPLETON LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN: Directed by Paul McGuigan. Written by Jason Smilovic. Producers, Chris Roberts, Christopher Eberts, Kia Jam, Anthony Rhulen, Robert Kravis, Tyler Mitchell. Cinematography, Peter Sova. Editor, Andrew Hulme. Production design, Francois Seguin. Music, J. Ralph. Starring Josh Hartnett, Sir Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu and Stanley Tucci. Weinstein Company/Ascendant Pictures, 2006. R. 110 minutes. It's funny what the right trailer will do for a movie. In the case of Lucky Number Slevin, the dapper, zingy trailer might lead you to believe the film is nothing but snappy comebacks and gunfire spun together with playful editing and a large dose of Tarantino-ism. Slevin has these elements, but it's a surprise when you find you're actually in for a leisurely paced crime caper, a who's-screwing-who tale of misdirection and revenge. Lucy Liu is mesmerized by Josh Hartnett's profile. Slevin's familiar pieces — the crime boss(es), the hapless young man, the killer for hire, the dame — are wrapped in a very stylish package. Interiors are done up like pretty gifts, all lush wallpapers or gray walls for the apartment in which Slevin (Josh Hartnett) is staying, and polished wood, mirrors and glass for the penthouses of the crime lords, the Boss (Morgan Freeman) and the Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley). Director Paul McGuigan (whose 2004 Wicker Park also starred Hartnett) has a clear feel for his film's downtown Manhattan setting. The neighboring penthouses stare balefully down at cluttered, crowded NYC streets. Slevin's borrowed pad is on a Lower East Side street where a twentysomething really might live — no absurd Central Park homes here. The apartment belongs to Nick Fisher, who, were he in residence, would be having a very bad day. Instead it's Slevin's bad day, as a pair of thugs haul him off to see the Boss, to whom Fisher owes a pile of cash. The Boss's son has just been cut down, and the Boss blames the Rabbi. Slevin is offered a deal: Kill the Rabbi's son, and the debt is erased. "But I'm not Nick Fisher!" isn't getting Slevin anywhere, so he agrees. Fisher, it turns out, owes the Rabbi some dough as well, and the Rabbi has him hauled in to the opposite penthouse. With both bosses on his ass, Slevin's in a bit of a pickle. Meanwhile, Fisher's neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu), a cheery chatterbox, is fascinated by Slevin's tale, which also includes a cheating girlfriend and a mugger (whose lifting of Slevin's wallet leaves him no way to prove he's not the missing Fisher). She's also a coroner, which seems a little odd, but no matter. Liu, so imposing in Kill Bill Vol. 1, is a tiny thing next to Hartnett, and she's unexpectedly endearing as a wannabe Nancy Drew who actually stops by, in the first place, to borrow a cup of sugar. And speaking of the unexpected, Hartnett puts on a funny, charming, performance as Slevin (we'll not dwell on the number of minutes he spends clad in only a towel). His character claims to have a condition that renders him free from worry, which explains his tendency to speak without thinking. But he doesn't so much quip as stand in for the observational, skeptical audience, quizzing the Boss and the Rabbi and anyone else he comes across about what's going on and why and what do they want with him, anyway? Style and cleverness aside, Slevin fails its audience on one key point: It tells us what to look for. Bruce Willis' smirking assassin, Mr. Goodkat, starts the film with a string of murders and a suggestive story about a Kansas City shuffle: "Everyone looks right. You go left." So we watch, we formulate theories, and when the revelation comes, it's less a twist than a jaunt around a corner we were just waiting to turn. But that's OK. McGuigan doesn't seem to have any big statements to make — we're maybe supposed to ponder what makes a good guy or a bad guy, and whether revenge is ever justifiable, but only if we really want to. With a movie like this, it's better to just go along for the ride.
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