Lucky Number Slevin
| Lucky Number Slevin | |
|---|---|
 Promotional theater poster | |
| Directed by | Paul McGuigan |
| Written by | Jason Smilovic |
| Starring | Josh Hartnett Bruce Willis Lucy Liu Morgan Freeman Ben Kingsley Stanley Tucci |
| Cinematography | Peter Sova |
| Edited by | Andrew Hulme |
| Music by | J. Ralph |
| Distributed by | North America: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The Weinstein Company International: New Line Cinema |
Release dates | February 24, 2006 (UK) April 7, 2006 (USA) |
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $27-30,000,000 |
| Box office | $56,308,881 worldwide[1] |
Lucky Number Slevin, renamed for DVD as Lucky # Slevin (also known as The Wrong Man), is a 2006 crime thriller film written by Jason Smilovic, directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu and Bruce Willis. Set in New York City, the plot focuses on the paths of Slevin Kelevra (Hartnett), Lindsey (Liu), two feuding mafia bosses known as The Boss (Freeman) and The Rabbi (Kingsley), and a mysterious hitman known as Mr. Goodkat (Willis).
Plot
Over the film's opening credits, two men are ambushed in separate locations and murdered, their ledgers stolen from their bodies by the unseen killers. Later, in the waiting area of a bus terminal, a young man is approached by Goodkat (Bruce Willis), who tells the story of Max, a family man who bets borrowed money on a fixed horse race while his son waited in the car. Max who only bets on sure things, plans to use his winnings to put his son through college. Unknown to Max, the mobsters financing the fix discover others betting on it and, to set an example and solidify their reputation, murder Max, his wife and his son Henry. As Goodkat concludes the story, he promptly snaps the man's neck in the bus terminal and puts him in the back of a truck to New York City.
In the next scene, a young black man escorted by bodyguards is killed by an unseen sharpshooter.
In New York City, Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) answers the door to his friend's apartment in a towel and meets bubbly neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu), who observes that Slevin is not Nick Fisher, the apartment's renter. Slevin relates that he lost his job, found out his apartment was condemned, and caught his girlfriend cheating on him so he decided to visit Nick in New York. After arriving in the city he is mugged and punched in the nose. Slevin confesses he has not seen Nick, and that the apartment was unlocked when he arrived. The phone rings but the caller hangs up. She is intrigued and presses redial to find out that the last call was made to a hotel and the hang up was also from the hotel. Lindsey expresses concern over Nick's absence and vows to investigate his disappearance before leaving for work.
Moments later, there is another knock at the door and Slevin is kidnapped by two henchmen, Sloe and Elvis (Mykelti Williamson, Dorian Missick) who take him to The Boss (Morgan Freeman), a powerful mafia lord who has mistaken Slevin for Nick and orders him to repay Nick's hefty $96,000 debt which was borrowed from Slim Hopkins, one of the men killed in the opening sequence and a bookie who worked for the Boss. As compensation, the Boss offers nick the option of murdering Yitzchok the Fairy, the homosexual son of rival Jewish mafia lord Schlomo The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley), the Boss's former partner supposedly responsible for murdering the Boss' son (the black man killed by the sharpshooter). As Slevin leaves to consider his options, the Boss meets with Goodkat, whom he has hired to kill Yitzchok and had asked the Boss to call on Nick. As Slevin leaves the building, we see that the police are watching and decided to alert Detective Brikowski that there is a new man (Slevin) in town.
Slevin returns to Nick's apartment, where Lindsey asks him to accompany her to the hotel that called earlier, to investigate Nick's absence. Slevin looks at the newspaper and reads about Slim Hopkins' mysterious disappearance. Lindsey goes back to her apartment to answer her phone, then Slevin is again kidnapped by henchmen, this time two orthodox Jews. They explain the the Boss and the Rabbi used to be partners but now neither of them leave their penthouse apartments "for fear of what the other will do to him." The Rabbi also mistakes Slevin for Nick and also demands he pays Nick's sizeable $33,000 debt to him within 48 hours. As Slevin leaves, Goodkat appears and confirms that the Rabbi will pay him to kill the Boss. The Rabbi also reveals that he knows Slevin was not Nick. Goodkat claims that he has unfinished business with Slevin and that's why he asked the Rabbi to call on him.
At Nick's apartment, Lindsey updates Slevin about her reconnaissance at the hotel, tracing the phone calls to the room of Mr. Smith, whom she discreetly photographs with her cell phone. Showing Slevin the photograph of Smith, now revealed as Goodkat, Slevin says he doesn't recognize him. Lindsey follows Smith to an apartment building, waits, and sees Slevin come out an hour later with the two Hassidic henchmen. Slevin fills Lindsey in on his day and his debts.
Slevin returns to the Boss and agrees to kill the Fairy. The Boss gives him three days, Slevin asks for a week and the Boss asks him to play him in chess for the extra time. The Boss tells Slevin what Goodkat had told him about the Fairy's body guards: former Mossad agents that shadow him. The Fairy's Star of David pendant is an alarm which the guards respond to in 4 seconds. The Boss suggests that Slevin approach the Fairy romantically to get inside his apartment. Goodkat reveals his plan for Slevin to kill the Fairy and Goodkat to kill Slevin and make it look like a gay lovers suicide pact. Slevin lets the Boss win the chess match. Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) is now watching Slevin personally and learns that Goodkat is in town. Goodkat is a professional hitman who hasn't worked in New York in 20 years.
Slevin returns to Nick's apartment where Lindsey reveals that she is a coroner who saw Benny Begin dead in the morgue. Begin was the other man who was killed in the opening credits and was a bookie working for the Rabbi. Lindsey and Detective Brikowski discussed how Begin was killed by a fastball to the head. Brikowski confides in Lindsey that Begin used to be his bookie. The other two men killed alongside Begin were poisoned. Lindsey thinks that Nick set Slevin up to take his place when he couldn't repay his debts and killed Slim and Benny because they were the only ones who knew what he looked like. Lindsey asks Slevin out to dinner and then goes back to work.
Slevin and Lindsey go out to dinner, allowing them to consider their mutual attraction and to allow Slevin to survey Yitzchok, who dines several tables away. Excusing himself, Slevin approaches Yitzchok in the restroom and exchanges phone numbers for a future date. Detective Brikowski then confronts Slevin in the bathroom, telling him that he knows Slevin is not Nick Fisher, as Nick Fisher is on police records as an incarcerated child molester. Returning home, Slevin spends the night in Lindsey's apartment. In the morning, Slevin leaves to get coffee and passes by both the Boss' and the Rabbi's henchmen watching him. Slevin is abducted a third time and shoved into an undercover police van, where he is interrogated by Detective Brikowski. Slevin simply tells him that his name is Slevin Kelevra.
Lindsey goes to work and Slevin is picked up by the Boss' henchmen. As they leave we see that the Rabbi's henchmen have been shot. That night, Slevin visits Yitzchok the Fairy at his apartment and shoots him. As Yitzchok falls to the ground, Goodkat appears from behind with his gun pointed towards Slevin. Goodkat re-aims and shoots Yitzchok in the head and gives Slevin the keys to his van, which contains a body. Goodkat presses Yitzchok's alarm and shoots the bodyguards as they bust through the adjacent wall. Slevin and Goodkat dump the body next to Yitzchok's, Slevin exchanges his watch with the watch on the body and the two depart, minutes before an explosion engulfs the apartment, disfiguring the bodies.
Goodkat visits the Boss, killing his henchmen and bodyguards and taking the Boss hostage, while Slevin kidnaps the Rabbi after telling him that his henchmen are dead. Hours later, both the Boss and the Rabbi awake, restrained to chairs in the Boss' penthouse and quarreling with each other over the deaths of their sons. It is revealed that the two mobs, having formerly been united, split in 1984 after the Rabbi, jealous of the Boss's growing power, ordered his death. The assassination attempt killed the Boss's wife and left him with six bullet wounds, but the Boss and his young son survived. The Boss tells the Rabbi his son Yitchok is dead in retaliation for the Rabbi killing his son. The Rabbi claims he had no hand in the Boss' son's death.
Their squabbles are interrupted by Slevin, who explains, through a series of connected flashbacks, how Goodkat killed Slim and Slevin killed Benny in order to find a name in each book who owed both mob bosses money: Nick Fisher. The man Goodkat killed in the terminal is revealed as the true Nick Fisher and Slevin was the one who murdered the Boss's son. His death prompted the Boss to hire Goodkat to kill the Rabbi's son in retaliation. Goodkat was the one who originally broke Slevin's nose so he could assume Fisher's identity. Goodkat met with the Boss and agreed to kill Yitzchok, asking that Nick Fisher be included as a pawn in his plan. The Boss agreed and sent his henchment to Fisher's apartment. Later, Goodkat met with the Rabbi and suggested the Rabbi pay him double what the Boss offered to murder his son to murder the Boss instead. The Rabbi accepts the terms and per Goodkat's instructions, sends his henchmen to Fisher's apartment to collect him. Thus, Goodkat plays the mobsters off one another to allow Slevin access to both mobster's heavily fortified apartments.
At the morgue Brikowski learns from Lindsey that the second body from the Fairy's apartment was charred past the point of identification. Goodkat arrives at the morgue and shoots Lindsey because she took his picture in the elevator. Lindsey had just noticed that the watch on the unidentified body was the same one Slevin had been wearing earlier. Brikowski gets a phone call and learns that "Slevin" was the name of the #7 horse Max bet on earlier in the movie. Max's bookie Roth who laid the bet off on the Boss and the Rabbi. They killed Max, his wife, his son, Roth, and even the horse to set an example. Goodkat was hired to kill Max's son because no one else would take the job. However, upon being face to face with the young Slevin, Goodkat decides not to kill him. In the penthouse, Slevin reveals his motivations for this complex plot; his father was Max, who was murdered along with his mother after the horse racing incident.
Simmering, Slevin slides plastic bags over both the Boss's and Rabbi's heads and asphyxiates them in the same manner his father Max was killed. Brikowski learns that the name Kelevra means Bad (ra) Dog (kelev) in Hebrew. Brikowski, revealed in a flashback as the gunman that shot Max's wife, realizes who Slevin really is moments before Slevin appears in the back seat and shoots Brikowski in the head.
Slevin waits at a terminal as Lindsey shows up. A flashback reveals that Goodkat showed up outside Lindsey's apartment when Slevin returned with coffee and told Slevin he had to kill her because she took his picture. Apprehensive about the notion, Slevin instructs her to wear body armor and a squib to protect her from Goodkat's bullets and fool him into thinking she died. In the closing scene, Goodkat tracks Slevin and Lindsey to the terminal. Slevin explains he didn't think Goodkat would understand why he wanted to save Lindsey, to which Goodkat responds that he would have (while remembering his first meeting with Slevin as a child). He then returns to Slevin the watch that was planted on Nick's corpse, which belonged to Slevin's father, before disappearing.
The film closes with a short flashback showing Goodkat and the young Slevin. Goodkat takes him into his car, where Slevin plays with his father's watch, given to him before he went to the racetrack, and is told that it will be a long time before they can return to New York. They turn on the radio and hear the song "The Kansas City Shuffle".
Cast
- Josh Hartnett — Slevin Kelevra
- Morgan Freeman — The Boss
- Sir Ben Kingsley — The Rabbi
- Lucy Liu — Lindsey
- Bruce Willis — Mr.Goodkat/Smith
- Stanley Tucci — Detective Brikowski
- Sam Jaeger — Nick Fisher
- Rick Bramucci — Soldier
- Kevin Chamberlin — Marty
- Oliver Davis — Henry
- Victoria Fodor — Helen
- John Ghaly — Police Officer
- Janet Lane — uhkjhkhkhkhhkkjkBlondie
- Shira Leigh — Hottie
- Mykelti Williamson — Sloe
- Dorian Missick — Elvis
- Sebastien Roberts — Man
- Michael Rubenfeld — The Fairy
- Robert Forster — Murphy
- Corey Stoll — Saul
- Matthew G. Taylor — Man
- Danny Aiello — Roth
- JD Jackson — Mugger
- Jennifer Miller — Slevin's Girlfriend Kelly
- Will Ferrel — Man 2
Awards and nominations
Milan International Film Festival:
Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA:
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References
See also
External links
