SPOILERS!

For a good deal of its running time, Lucky Number Slevin is a great movie. It has unique characters, witty dialogue, and an interesting scenario. By its end, it is just another (fine) movie with a too-familiar plot and an almost drudgery-like feel to the ending.

There are quite a few plot twists. Only one took me by surprise--the rest are fairly obvious (and in fact, the one that did take me by surprise should not have if I had been paying attention). There are a variety of clues offered, some clever, some so obvious that you overlook them.

The film is best when it has this feeling of strangeness, when Slevin (a very good Josh Hartnett) is mistaken for a friend and ends up embroiled in a world of crime. Slevin is a great character, a sort of implacable smartmouth who can't resist mouthing off to people even when they point guns at him. This world features a variety of strange supporting characters, many of which I would like to see in another movie when they could be given a better chance to shine. They include: Lucy Liu as a goofy neighbor who works in the city morgue (whose character is a nice subversion of the Neighbor Rule), Morgan Freeman as a cultured mobster, Ben Kingsley as his Jewish rival, Bruce Willis as a mysterious assassin, and Stanley Tucci as a foul-mouthed cop trying to keep track of everybody.

The film is best at its beginning when Slevin is faced with a series of improbably goofy and threatening events and balances them with romancing (?) Liu. The movie is quite funny and even the bit characters--the inarticulate thugs of Freeman, the Hasidic Jew thugs of Kingsley, and others keep our interest. The LONG flashback to open things up tips the story's hand a tad too much, unfortunately.

Things get a little too routine when Slevin's true identity is revealed. A lot of what makes the movie fun is wiped away and Slevin becomes a much less interesting character. Willis' character becomes more of a plot convenience than a living, breathing person. And there are a few Deux Ex Machinas too many.

The acting is terrific, with the performers doing a good job with some difficult dialogue. Liu is not a great actress, but she's great here and so likeable that perhaps she might get a conventional comedy role in the near future. Willis has a pretty easy role to play, but his Alpha Tough Guy role fits him well. Freeman and Kingsley do the work one would expect from men with little Oscars on their shelves.

It's hard to describe what kind of film this is. The previews make the movie sound like an action film. It isn't (although it features a lot of blood). It's also not a comedy. It's kind of like Pulp Fiction, I guess, but not really.