Films that leave you guessing.
Lucky number slevin is one of my favourite films of all time. This is a film that will have you guessing from the start because the beginning is really confusing.
We start off with Bruce Willis in an airport talking to a random man about a story that happened 30 years ago. He talks about how a young kid laid off a spiked horse against the gang that did it. His idea was that he had no money, and his uncle had given him a tip that he overheard one of the gang bossess tell their henchmen that a horse had been spiked and it was sure to win. So it was a no lose situation.
Stupidly, having no money himself he decided to wager the money against the local crime boss, borrowing a large amount to bet on the horse. Obviously he didn't know that the underground wouldn't take too kindly to this since it was them that spiked the horse in the first place.
Anyway, to make an example of them, and so that no-one else had the bright idea to even think about trying this again they murdered him and his entire family, right down to the kid.
As the story closes the random man confusedly asked him what this has to do with him right before his neck gets snapped.
And thus we move to the main story.
Confused already, we pick the story up with Slevin Kelevra, a young man who is on holiday to meet his friend. But the strange thing is that his friend isn't at home, and even worse he was mugged on the way over to his house so he's lost everything.
All he wants to do is sit down and rest after being mugged, but that is short lived after the local crime boss wants to have a word with him about his debts. He is mistaken for his friend that he's visiting and dragged in by some goons and brought to the boss.
From there it just gets even more confusing. Twists and turns, you are completely left in the dark -- it's one that had me completely stumped all the way through until all was revealed. It was absolutely amazing writing.
The whole story is written through the audience eyes as we try desperately to understand what's going on but fail at every turn, or at least I did anyway. What was really going on was closely guarded as we were taken on twists and turns, mis-directed, and sent to look elsewhere. It's one of the cleverest films I've had the fortune to watch.
If I could give you a recommendation it would be to watch this film. It's brutal of course; lots of blood and violence and gang warfare if you like that sort of thing. But it's definitely plied full of crazy conundrums for you to work through as a storyline that seems so simple displayed before you, yet is so hard to work out.
We also see a very young Lucy Lui in this film. She plays a young woman in healthcare who had a little bit of a fetish towards solving mysteries. We are taken through her confusion as well as she tries to make sense of what's unfolding in front of her. Her neighbour is now missing with no word, and both slevin kelevra, and lucy partner up try to find him, and get to the bottom of what's happening.
Definitely a great film.
10/10 from me.
Posted using CineTV