Shades of Gray at the Movies: Lucky Number Slevin

So a week or so ago I went and saw Inside Man, which I enjoyed, and then later on went out and bought the New Yorker, and discovered that instead of being the reasonably well-crafted thriller I thought I was watching, it was in fact "dumb enough, with large logical holes punched though it at regular intervals, to make the audience feel...clever." Given that one of the logical holes that Anthony Lane felt so clever for having spotted doesn't exist, I feel slightly less dumb for having enjoyed it on the level, but still.

And then I went to see Lucky Number Slevin, and all was well. There's a movie with gaping logical holes in it, I think Anthony Lane and I can agree. And we do! I can't really criticize the performances-everyone is fine-but the dialogue is more than a little too clever for its own good, and the motivation of one major character is completely inexplicable. Which is a problem, because this character drives the plot. So while I thought it started with promise, it was ultimately pretty disappointing.

On the plus side, the performances are by and large all right, and in a bit of trivia that will appeal to the Official Mom of Shades of Gray and no one else, Ben Kingsley's character drinks tea out of what looks to be Lomonosovskaya china. So, if your mother is a china freak, there's about a minute or so where you can think "Hey! I've seen that tea service!" You all can decide for yourselves whether that's worth the price of admission.