The Rabbi: Your predicament reminds me of a story. Hitchcock. North By Northwest. The movie where everybody thinks Cary Grant is a man named George Kaplan, but the thing is there is no George Kaplan. It's just a made-up name, but names, even made-up ones...they can bring about quite a bit of trouble. Now, the woman in the picture with Grant, her name was, um... Slevin: Eva Marie Saint. The Rabbi: Oh, you know this movie. Slevin: I know this movie.
A 2006 thriller with some elements of a stylized Film Noir. The movie plays with viewpoint and non-linear storytelling as it tries to be both The Usual Suspects and a Quentin Tarantino flick. Better Than It Sounds.The movie opens with a recount of an old horse race. One of the trainers gets the idea to fix the race by drugging his horse. He tells his brother who tells a friend who tell another friend until the word of this "drugstore handicap" eventually makes it back to good old Max. Max is a family man just looking to make a buck, maybe put his kid through school. Max puts down a lot of money he doesn't have on the horse. Of course something goes wrong—the horse breaks its leg on the home stretch and is put down on the track. Panicking, Max finds himself assaulted by thugs connected to the bookie who took his bet. He's killed. Worse, his wife is killed. The thugs even call in a professional to kill his little boy.Fast forward several years and to an everyman named Slevin just moving to New York City to stay at his buddy Nick's house after a week of misfortune. After meeting his quirky neighbor Lindsey, Slevin finds himself mistaken for Nick by some thugs connected to a gangster called The Boss. Apparently Nick owes quite a bit of money to this man, and no one believes Slevin when he says he shouldn't be the one on the hook for the loan. To complicate matters, Nick also owes money to a rival gangster, the Rabbi (who in a very Shakespearan turn of events, lives right across the street from the Boss [in the exact same type of building, no less]).Suddenly Slevin finds himself trapped in the middle of the gangsters' cold war, asked to assassinate the Rabbi's son in order to cover Nick's debt. But everyone has secrets in this Kansas City Shuffle...Features an all-star cast comprised of Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, and Bruce Willis. Bizarrely, this movie was released as 'The Wrong Man' in Australia.
This film provides examples of:
Actor Allusion: Bruce Willis gives Slevin the watch that once belonged to his (Slevin) father. Much like Bruce Willis' character received his father's watch in Pulp Fiction
Angst? What Angst?: Justified by Slevin with his "ataraxia" (which he describes as if it's a mental disorder - it's actually a philosophical concept meaning pretty much what he says it means). The true reason is of course that Slevin planned all the events of the movie in advance.invoked
Goodkat: I'm a world class assassin, fuckhead. How'd you think I found out?
Asshole Victim: Nick Fisher, who seems entirely harmless at the start of the film, is revealed to have been a pederast who served eight years in prison for forcing himself on a fourteen year old cheerleader.
Black and Gray Morality: There are no good guys. Even Slevin kills the sons of the gangsters who killed his parents, despite the fact that neither of them had ever harmed him personally.
Bilingual Bonus: If you speak Hebrew, you know that Slevin's last name (Kelevra) means "Bad Dog". It will not take long from there to guess that he has a connection to Goodkat.
Chekhov's Gun: So, so many. First, you have the literal gun the Rabbi uses. It's seen in the beginning when one of the faceless men is torturing Max. Then the Rabbi threatens Slevin with it. There is also the Boss's ring, Slevin's watch, and the Fairy's necklace, just to name a few.
Deadpan Snarker: Slevin to a T. The Boss even mentions it: "Bet you it was that mouth that got you that [broken] nose." He claims that he has a condition that prevents him from taking anything seriously or worrying.
Downer Ending: The alternate ending on the DVD where Lucy Liu's character dies would count.
Dungeon Bypass: Touched upon by The Fairy's bodyguards; they are in the next room, but they come through the (false) wall. However, Goodkat realizes that this is where they would come in, noticing that the wall is thin by the noise they make next door, and is able to ambush them.
Dumb Muscle: Slow. He and Elvis even discuss it in a deleted scene.
The Ending Changes Everything: Detective Brikowski reacts rather interestingly whenever Goodkat is mentioned. And look at Slevin reacting to the Boss calling himself a nice guy or hiding the fact that he is an assassin by saying, "I uh, I travel a lot."
Even Evil Has Standards: The mob have to bring in a specialist hitman because no one is willing to kill an innocent child. Turns out the hitman was not keen on the idea either...
Fanservice: Slevin in his towel for the first third of the movie.
Flirting Under Fire: Slevin and Lindsey build up most of their romance in this manner. Despite the fact that Slevin is on the hit list of two warring gangs, he and Lindsey find time to flirt, go to dinner (where Slevin is able to shadow a man he has been told to kill), and spend a night together.
Gambit Roulette: Several points in the plan are up to chance, most particularly The Boss picking a hitman who hasn't worked the city in question for years to do the deed. The plan where Slevin is counting on Goodkat not checking if Lindsey is dead. That Slevin would be able to pay his debt to the Rabbi IN PERSON, AT NIGHT, UNGUARDED. Certainly, measures were taken to skew the probabilities in their favor, but none of it was guaranteed from the outset.
In The Style Of: The lightning-fast dialogue with constant references to other films and tv shows can't fail to make one think of Tarantino.
Irony: "Dramatic Irony" is a term for when a character is speaking the truth, without realizing that he or she is speaking the truth. When you watch the movie a second time, pay attention to everything The Boss and The Rabbi say.
The Rabbi and his son, the Fairy. Why do they call him the Rabbi? Because he is a rabbi. Why do they call him the Fairy? Because he is a homosexual.
Mob War: Between the Boss and the Rabbi. It has escalated to the point where neither can leave his penthouse for fear of being executed by the other.
Mood Whiplash: Almost every scene in this movie is either deathly serious or absolutely hilarious, with very little in between. The transitions between these moods are extremely abrupt, but that is also kind of the point.
One-Scene Wonder: The opening story-within-a-story is choc-full of them. The casting of side-characters in general in this film is top notch.
Second Person Attack: The last thing the Rabbi's bookie sees is the baseball flying towards his head.
Shirtless Scene: About a third of the movie for Josh Hartnett. And not just shirtless. Wearing only a towel and slippers.
Shout Out: An "echo" variation: Columbo is mentioned, and shortly after Slevin does a "just one more thing" to The Rabbi. James Bond is mentioned just before he gets the girl, who is then (apparently) killed.North By Northwest is mentioned about the plot point of being mistaken for a person who does not exist shortly before it is revealed that the protagonist's "real" identity is fake.
Mykelti Williams' character has a noticeable physical tic where he constantly has his upper lip raised. In his most famous role, as Bubba in Forrest Gump, he had a similar tic where his lower lip was constantly extended.
Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Slevin is a Type I until it becomes apparent that he and Goodkat are in cahoots, making him a Type IV/Type V. Goodkat, though, is definitely a Type V, his only saving graces being not wanting to kill a child, and letting Lindsay live. After trying to kill her once.
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