by Philip Lop

Created on: September 09, 2010   Last Updated: May 08, 2012

Year of production:        2006

Directed by:                   Paul McGuigan

Written by:                     Jason Smilovic

Running time:                110 minutes

MPAA:                            Rated R for strong violence, sexuality and language.

UK Certificate:               18

Slevin is not having a good day. Turfed out of his apartment, he goes round to his girlfriend’s flat, only to find her having sex with another guy. Trying to think of somewhere else to go, he opts to call up his friend Nick and flies out to crash at his apartment. On the way from the airport, he manages to get mugged and it is a rather bruised and battered young Slevin who eventually makes it to Nick’s apartment – where his friend is nowhere to be seen. But if things were bad before he got to the apartment, once he gets there, things just get plain weird.

Director Paul McGuigan (Wicker Park, Gangster No 1) and writer Jason Smilovic have come together for a genuinely star-studded crime thriller that has more twists than a twisty thing. Lucky Number Slevin is a rather odd film, it has to be said. Lurching rapidly from being harshly brutal to quirkily upbeat and then back again, it comes from the same school of film making as The Usual Suspects and when approached on the basis that nothing is quite what it seems, it is about as enjoyable as these things can possibly be.

Some reviewers have criticised the film for being “unnecessarily convoluted” when in fact it is actually necessarily complicated. That’s the whole point, you see. Never confusing, but generally always rather intriguing, it’s one of those movies that you have to stick with until the end. There were times during the film when you might be a little bored. There were times when you'll wonder where it's going. But there will also be times when you're completely absorbed.

Resisting the temptation to use one of those freeze frame “Hi – This is Character X” storytelling

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