Lucky Number Slevin

Lucky Number Slevin
Promotional theater poster
Directed by	Paul McGuigan
Written by	Jason Smilovic
Starring	Josh Hartnett Morgan Freeman Sir Ben Kingsley Lucy Liu Stanley Tucci Bruce Willis
Music by	J. Ralph
Cinematography	Peter Sova
Editing by	Andrew Hulme
Distributed by	North America Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The Weinstein Company International New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	United Kingdom February 24, 2006 United States April 7, 2006
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$27,000,000
Box office	$56,308,881

Lucky Number Slevin, renamed for the German/USA DVDs as Lucky # Slevin (and also known as The Wrong Man in Australasia), is a 2006 crime thriller film written by Jason Smilovic, directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, and Lucy Liu. Set in New York City, the plot focuses on the paths of Slevin Kelevra (Hartnett), Lindsey (Liu), two feuding crime lords known as The Boss (Freeman) and The Rabbi (Kingsley), and a mysterious hitman known as Mr. Goodkat (Willis).

Plot

During the film's opening credits, two bookies are separately ambushed and murdered, their ledgers stolen from their bodies by their unseen killers. Elsewhere, a young black man walks out of a downtown building and is shot and killed by a sniper.

In a bus terminal, a young man is approached by a man in a wheelchair named Goodkat (Bruce Willis), who tells the story of Max and the Kansas City Shuffle. Two decades earlier, Max borrowed money and bet on a fixed horse race. When the mob found out that word had gotten out about the fix, they killed the horse before it reached the finish line, then killed Max for being unable to pay back the loan. To further send a message, they also had his wife and his twelve-year-old son Henry killed as well. Goodkat concludes the story, revealing that the Kansas City Shuffle is when "they look left and you go right" and promptly stands up and snaps the young man's neck. He leaves the terminal with the body in the back of a truck.

In New York City, Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) is staying in his friend Nick Fisher's apartment nursing a broken nose. He answers the door, meeting neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu), who ducks in to borrow some sugar. Slevin relates that he is visiting after some recent bad luck and explains the broken nose as the result of a mugging. He confesses he has not seen Nick and that the apartment was unlocked when he arrived. Lindsey suggests that Nick may be missing and that she and Slevin should investigate together.

Lindsey leaves for work moments before Slevin is kidnapped by two black henchmen. They take him to The Boss (Morgan Freeman), a powerful crime lord leading an all-black crime syndicate. Mistaking Slevin for Nick, The Boss orders Slevin to repay a large gambling debt. It is revealed that the young black man assassinated in the opening credits is The Boss's son. Believing his rival The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) to be responsible, The Boss offers Slevin the opportunity to murder The Rabbi's homosexual son Yitzchok (also known as "The Fairy") as an alternative to payment. After Slevin leaves, Goodkat steps out of the shadows and it is revealed that The Boss has simultaneously hired him to kill The Fairy.

Slevin returns to the apartment but is shortly kidnapped again, this time by two henchmen from The Rabbi's all-Jewish crime syndicate. The Rabbi also mistakes Slevin for Nick and demands he repay another large gambling debt. As Slevin leaves, Goodkat again steps out of the shadows and it is revealed that he is enigmatically aware that Slevin is not Nick Fisher. Slevin returns to The Boss the next day and agrees to kill The Fairy. The Boss gives him three days and recommends that Slevin approach The Fairy romantically. Intercut with this conversation, Goodkat tells the Boss that he will kill Slevin after Slevin kills The Fairy, concealing both murders by making them look like a double suicide.

Slevin and Lindsey go out to dinner at The Fairy's favorite restaurant. Slevin approaches The Fairy in the restroom and arranges a future date. Slevin also meets Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci), currently investigating The Boss and The Rabbi, but does not disclose his intended role as hitman. Returning home, Slevin and Lindsey's relationship develops and they spend the night together. The following morning, Slevin is hassled again by Brikowski, but reveals only his full name, Slevin Kelevra. That evening he is picked up by The Boss's henchmen in preparation for his date with The Fairy. As they leave it is revealed that The Rabbi's henchmen, keeping tabs on Slevin, have been shot and killed in their car.

Slevin arrives at The Fairy's apartment and promptly shoots him, nearly killing him. Goodkat appears behind Slevin and, in an unexpected turn of events, finishes The Fairy off and leaves Slevin unharmed, thus revealing that he and Slevin are, in fact, a team. Slevin then brings the body of the bus terminal victim, revealed to be the true Nick Fisher, into the apartment while Goodkat kills The Fairy's bodyguards. Together they blow up the apartment and the bodies, thus concealing Slevin's false identity as Nick.

Goodkat kills the Boss's henchmen and takes him hostage while Slevin kidnaps the Rabbi. Both men awaken restrained to chairs in the Boss's penthouse. Slevin appears and explains the overarching twist: the ill-fated Max was Slevin's father, the mobsters who killed him were The Boss and The Rabbi, and Slevin's own murder was never completed as the hitman hired to do the job, revealed to be Goodkat himself, found compassion for him.

Twenty years later and with Goodkat's help, Slevin killed The Boss's son and both mobsters' bookies, then assumed the identity of Nick Fisher, a man who owed money to both sides. As gang warfare loomed, both mobsters independently hired Goodkat, who insisted as a part of payment that both call in Nick's debts. Thus both Goodkat and Slevin gained access to the otherwise unreachable mobsters, allowing them to set up this final confrontation.

After this revelation Slevin kills The Boss and The Rabbi, asphyxiating them in the same manner by which they killed Max, by duct-taping plastic bags over their heads. At the same time, Goodkat finds Lindsey at work and shoots her to protect his identity, which she had discovered earlier in her investigation. Finally, it is revealed that Detective Brikowski killed Slevin's mother when, as a young man, his own gambling debts were called in by the mobsters. Slevin kills Brikowski as the meaning of his chosen name "Slevin Kelevra" is revealed: "Lucky Number Slevin" was the name of the ill-fated horse his father had bet on, and "kelevra" is Hebrew for "bad dog," mirroring Goodkat's name.

Sometime later at the bus terminal, Slevin is met by Lindsey. They embrace and it is revealed that Slevin, aware of Goodkat's intention to kill her, explained his true identity following their night together and helped stage her death. Goodkat appears at the terminal, apparently already aware of the trickery. Slevin explains himself by saying "I thought you wouldn't understand." Referencing his own decision to spare Slevin as a boy, Goodkat replies "I'd have understood," and leaves. (In an alternative ending, Slevin shoots and kills Lindsey while Goodkat looks on.)

The film closes with a flashback to Goodkat and young Slevin (Henry) shortly after Max's death. Goodkat takes Slevin into his car and tells him that it will be a long time before they can return to New York. As they drive away, the hit song "Kansas City Shuffle" by Bennie Moten starts playing on the car's radio.

Cast

• Josh Hartnett as Slevin Kelevra
• Bruce Willis as Mr. Goodkat/Smith
• Lucy Liu as Lindsey
• Morgan Freeman as The Boss
• Sir Ben Kingsley as The Rabbi
• Michael Rubenfeld as Yitzchok The Fairy
• Peter Outerbridge as Detective Dumbrowski
• Stanley Tucci as Detective Brikowski
• Kevin Chamberlin as Marty
• Dorian Missick as Elvis
• Mykelti Williamson as Sloe
• Scott Gibson as Max
• Daniel Kash as Bodyguard #1
• Dmitry Chepovetsky as Bodyguard #2
• Sam Jaeger as Nick Fisher
• Danny Aiello as Roth
• Oliver Davis as Henry
• Corey Stoll as Saul
• Howard Jerome as Abe
• J. D. Jackson as Mugger
• Sebastien Roberts as Man
• Robert Forster as Murphy
• Shira Leigh as Hottie
• Janet Lane as Gloria
• Nicholas Rice as Doc
• Bernard Kay as Morty
• Sam Stone as Old Waiter
• Darren Marsman as Slim Hopkins
• Gerry Mendicino as Benny Begin
• Diego Klattenhoff as Ginger
• Rick Bramucci as Soldier
• Victoria Fodor as Helen

Home media

The film was released on DVD on September 12, 2006. and on Blu-ray November 8, 2008. To date the film has made $26,877,256 in home video sales, bringing its worldwide total to $83,186,137. This does not include rentals or Blu-ray sales.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reception, with a rotten score of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Awards and nominations

Directors Guild of Canada

• Nominated: Outstanding Sound Editing - Feature Film

Milan International Film Festival

• Won: Best Film (Paul McGuigan)
• Won: Best Actor (Josh Hartnett)

Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA

• Nominated: Best Sound Editing for Music in a Feature Film
• Nominated: Best Sound Editing for Sound Effects and Foley in a Foreign Film

See also

• Kansas City Shuffle

External links

• Lucky Number Slevin at the Internet Movie Database
• Lucky Number Slevin at AllRovi
• Lucky Number Slevin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lucky Number Slevin at Box Office Mojo
• Watch: Red Carpet Premiere, NYC, on independentfilm.com