Even if the dialogue is too glib for the dark and ruthless heroes, a great cast and edgy story keep this thriller moving to the very end.
With a dream cast director Paul McGuigan and writer Jason Smilovic team up to create the latest and best reincarnation of “The Usual Suspects” with sparkling dialogue and a thriller plot that twists until the fat lady sings. Starring Josh Hartnett as Slevin, a feckless young man caught in a gang war with his pants down and Bruce Willis as Goodkat, the iron assassin who almost never fails, “Slevin” capitalizes on the father-child buddy movie with skill and elegance and features the best dialogue since “Pulp Fiction.” It is great to see first rate banter once again a part of blood-thirsty vengeance--together they make such beautiful music. It has elements of the Newman’s “Road to Perdition” with the first rate dialogue and excellent plot treatment of “The Sting.”
Just as Kevin Spacey's character in “Suspects” was so hopeless he was great, so is Josh Hartnett as the innocent Slevin caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Collared by two outstanding thug caricatures in a friend’s apartment during a chance visit, he is mistaken for a poor stiff who owes inappropriate debts to inappropriate people. What ensues is some of the most entertaining flashback story-telling since “Suspects” with the best rough and tumble dialog since “Pulp Fiction.” None of the dialogue is ad-libbed--it is all spoken exactly as penned by Smilovic. According to director McGuigan “The words were so particular to this film that if the voice were to change, it would change the film dramatically...” Kudos for him—at least for this film it works.
Lucy Liu plays Lindsey, the over-involving girl next door who comes to borrow a cup of sugar from Slevin’s friend and almost shares his fate at the hands of Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis). If the film has a failing it is that these youngsters are too good to be true. But compared to the character of Lindsey, the Mt. St.Helens of ever-erupting freshness, it is easy for the old fogies in the film to look bad. Or at least to look old. Liu continues on her run of box office successes after her role as Cottonmouth in Tarantino’s smash hits “Kill Bill” Volumes 1 and 2 and as Alex, one of the deadly trio in “Charlie’s Angels.”
Which brings us to Messrs. Freeman and Kingsley, two men whose skills and reputations have passed the professional into the legendary. If you have time before you see this film, see Sir Ben in “Sexy Beast,” possibly the best depiction of a real gangster in the last twenty years. Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas” are the only ones who come close. His recent box-office buster as Fagan in “Oliver Twist” had more lines than his part as Schlomo “The Rabbi” in this film, but was nowhere near as good. Smilovic wrote the part of The Rabbi specifically for Kingsley and Sir Ben is able to take that brutally realistic gangster persona from “Sexy Beast” and bring those memories into the exact time-adjusted part for this film. He is the same character, only aged to perfection--cranky in his old age, but still mean as a snake as ruthless as they come.
Morgan Freeman has taken bits and pieces from his “Million Dollar Baby” character of Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris, the washed-up palooka who still packs a punch and con Red Redding in “The Shawshank Redemption,” and grafted them together into this visage of “The Boss”, an aging black man who sacrificed everything to rise to the top of the New York mob. There is nobody he hasn’t killed or had killed, however innocent, to further his rise to the top. But he can never forget the friendship he used to have with his arch-rival The Rabbi. He can never stop wondering if his power was worth the loss of his son and his best friend. He and The Rabbi now share penthouse apartments, fortified with three inch bulletproof glass, across the street from each other in the City. Every day they stare down the barrel of their mortality and wonder how they could have done it differently.
First rate supporting performances by Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman; gangsters with a gift for gab putting on their bad faces as Hartnett’s flawed father figures. Some of the flashiest two-fisted gun slinging by Willis since his work as the shooter in "Last Man Standing." After his recent spotty record of pot-boiling lead roles, this clever and dynamic performance may be Hartnett's lucky number. Writer Smilovic turns up the voltage. Don’t miss it.
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