Lucky Number Slevin -- 2006 -- R

Wow, very cool. Here we have a thriller that self-references to North by Northwest, and what an appropriate analogy it is. It's easily as well constructed aa that Hitchcock classic, though a bit more graphic.

What we have is a guy named Slevin who, after a fit of bad luck, goes to stay with a friend who has disappeared and is immediately picked up by some gangsters to whom his friend owes money. He is charged to work an act of vengeance on boss #1 for the actions of boss #2 in exchange for paying off the debt he (or rather, his friend) owes. Well, then boss #2 takes an interest in him for the debt owed to him as well. Then, there is apparently a hitman involved who has some sort of interest in our boy Slevin as well. That's the setup.

This film both takes right off, while at the same time being a slow burning fuse that begs for us to pay attention or risk missing something that may or may not be important later. I say it like that because like any well-made film, everything is important but until the chips finally come down, we have no idea. A normal film gives up the setup in the first 20 minutes; this one gives you a bunch of stuff that happens, but doesn't give up much. Nonetheless, I was glued for the duration wondering what the heck was going on.

Got some great characters in this one and though it's hard to discuss some issues without spoiling the film, I will say everyone's motives make perfect sense and every little thing works together to make the larger whole very cohesive and tightened together nicely. The plot flows very quickly with little in the way of extraneous scenes to make you wish they would just get on with it.

Only one scene made me wish we would move on, and while that scene served to reveal some character info between the two bosses, I really think it went on too long as I was just wishing we could get to the point of the film which was approaching very quickly by that time.

This was a great film, and right up my alley. It was twisty, and appropriately confusing until just the right time when everything comes out and all reasoning is revealed. I really enoyed it.