Lucky Number Slevin

Lucky Number Slevin, 2006
Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition)



I remember so well when this was in theaters. I can even remember which theater the movie was playing in at the Winter Park Regal Cinema, because I saw it on the red LED sign when my friends and I went to go see some other movie. Kind of strange right? My friends who did see the movie in theaters really liked it, and I mean it can't be too bad right?

After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)

I don't know why this movie was so hard for me to sit down and watch when I first tried to watch it on Wednesday night. It was actually kind of ridiculous, because dishes that had been sitting in the dishwasher all day became my biggest priority. I mean, really? It wouldn't have hurt the dishes to sit in the dishwasher that much longer, but I decided to turn the movie off and try it again on Friday when I got off of work. Sure it would mean trying to watch two or three movies that day, but I thought I could do it.

Friday came along and I was really dragging behind. I think I had about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before, but I needed to stay on top of things and watch at least two movies that day. Wil really came through for me when I was about to fall asleep on the couch by texting me to make sure we were still going to watch a couple of movies that day. (Thanks Wil!)

I don't know what it was about the movie the second time I tried watching it, but Lucky Number Slevin was much easier to watch on the second attempt. I'm willing to chalk this one up to peer pressure. Now that Wil was going to be coming over and in a sense would be helping me power through these movies I felt like there was no turning back. It may have also helped that there were no dirty dishes to be found in my apartment at the time.

I have to first start out by saying that I loved this movie. I thought it was fabulous, but I can't really say I was too surprised by the story. While I think it was incredibly ballsy for the writer to tell us within the first five minutes of the movie what a Kansas City Shuffle was. A Kansas City Shuffle, as explained by Bruce Willis in the movie, is when everyone else is looking left and you look right. Of course this is a perfect example of one of the biggest affects film school has had on the way I watch movies today.

I'll always remember one of the key ideas to story telling that I learned when I was in school, and that's how in life we are always killing time. We kill time by stopping by the book store to flip through a couple of magazines before going to the movies, or by grabbing a cup of coffee somewhere. In movies though, time is always killing us. As story tellers we would love to be able to explain in great detail about how wonderful our hero is, but we don't really need to see him helping an old lady cross the street and serve dinner at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving to get that general idea. That being said, in any movie, short film, or TV show you will never be told or shown anything that generally doesn't progress the story. The only exception to this, is if something is either said or shown intentionally as a red herring. A great story teller will carefully place clues throughout the movie that only after we've finished watching the movie do we realize why the killer was always wearing black.
Don't believe me? Watch an episode of Medium and you'll see that I'm right.

So when I was told within the first five minutes of the movie there was going to be a red herring, I kind of hard my guard up. I didn't generally take each character at face value, and questioned many of the things they did and said at first. Eventually, I got so wrapped up in the story that I stopped questioning many of the characters except for Lucy Liu's character. I just couldn't buy her playing the "girl next door" who was ready and so willing to help solve Slevin's biggest problem. I expected her to play a larger part in the plot than she actually did, but I think it was done intentionally that way as part of the red herring. I've warned people about spoilers already, this is the final warning. Without her character we never would have seen the emotional side of Slevin throwing the whole story out the window.

I also didn't understand why we saw the flashback to 1979 as narrated and introduced to us by Bruce Willis before he explained what a Kansas City Shuffle was. Although I want to point out just how fantastic the Production Designer was, because many of the residential settings revolved around Slevin were very retro and had a very strong 70's influence. This was more than likely done on a conscious level so that as an audience we would subconsciously associate Slevin with the story from 1979. It was done well too, because it wasn't until about halfway through the movie that I suspected that Slevin was the kid from the 1979 flashback.

It wasn't until Slevin finally started playing detective while out to dinner with Lucy Liu and was able to point out The Fairy's bodyguards that I started questioning him. The once Slevin walks into The Fairy's apartment, so easily finds the hidden room and emotionlessly kills The Fairy that I ultimately suspect he has kept something from us. Also aiding and adding to the level of suspension was the complete disregard and lack of respect Slevin seemed to have for The Boss and The Rabi.

Final thoughts: I loved the movie and thought it was brilliantly written. There were subtle hints as to Slevin's real identity carefully placed throughout the movie, which when done well the audience isn't able to pick up on. As a kid we realize he's a big baseball fan, and a couple of times Slevin makes smart remarks about baseball and even commits murder via a fast ball. The only big clue or aid we're given is Lucy Liu's character for her inquisitive nature and ability to pick up on subtle things like the story Slevin tells us about being mugged when first arriving in the city.

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