COUNT THE WAYS 'LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN' ACTORS, DIRECTOR INTRIGUED BY SMART, DIALOGUE-HEAVY CRIME-MOVIE EXPERIENCE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

It's one of those crime movies that's as funny as it is shocking. Flashbacks and digressive tales, some of which are taller than others, abound. Everybody has pronounced personality quirks and can talk eloquent blue streaks. The most philosophical orators are often the most brutal. Of course, you can't trust what anybody says. Or what they claim to be. Nor even that the people who made the film aren't just putting you on.

It's called "Lucky Number Slevin," and like most of the better hip thrillers of the last dozen years or so, it shares some apparent similarities to groundbreaking works by a certain former video-store clerk.

But don't call it Tarantinoesque.

"It's kind of easy to say Tarantinoesque," protests "Slevin" director Paul McGuigan. "It's like saying Hitchcockian - what does that mean? Is that actually in the dictionary? I don't know."

Probably not yet. But perhaps a bit of a description (limited, so as not give away crucial plot twists) can clarify the argument.

Bruce Willis, a star of QT's "Pulp Fiction," is the professional hit man Goodkat, who likes to distract people with long, involved narratives before snuffing them out. Josh Hartnett, recently seen in QT pal Robert Rodriguez's partially Tarantino-directed "Sin City," is the title guy, Slevin.

A visitor misidentified as the shady friend whose New York apartment he's staying at, Slevin is forced to work for both The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley), former crime partners who now want to kill each other.

The bewildered Slevin's only ally is his friend's neighbor Lindsey (Lucy Liu, of QT's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" and Tarantino associate Tony Scott's "Domino"), a chatty, amateurdetective type with a day job at the coroner's office.

It all gets a lot more complicated.

OK, so if we're not supposed to use the T-word to describe "Slevin," which was made from an original script by TV writer Jason Smilovic, how should we describe it?

"I think this film is very distinctive, it definitely has the distinctive voice of Jason Smilovic," says the Scottish McGuigan, who has made another structurally complex though more dramatically serious underworld thriller, "Gangster No. 1." "I also think Tarantino has that kind of voice. But I approached this a different way. I thought of it as being more individual and Shakespearean. These two rival gangs, big long takes of people that talk all the time. ... It's a self-conscious style, but it's conscious of being self-conscious."

We're not the only ones to greet that statement with a healthy "Yeah, right."

"Shakespearean movie is a contradiction in terms," says Hartnett (who actually appeared in one of those, "O," a prep-school update of "Othello"). "Shakespeare didn't write those plays for the film - you have to change everything about it.

"The appeal of this movie to me was more like a 'Miller's Crossing' than anything else," adds Hartnett, referencing the Coen brothers' 1990 period crime caper, a kind of precursor to the baroque bad-ass approach Tarantino established with "Reservoir Dogs" two years later. "It's a fairy-tale kind of version of gangland New York. It's fun, it's an alternate world, it's a fantasy. That's fun - that makes moviemaking interesting."

Actually, the Shakespearean case can be made quite effectively. Especially by someone who knows the Bard inside-out.

"I think Paul's right," notes peerless British actor Kingsley. "But it depends on what perspective you bring. My first 15 years as an actor were very much Shakespeare-based, classical theater-based. And Shakespeare and his contemporaries and those shortly after him, like Marlowe and Webster, they wrote ferociously. They do have a rhythm, they do have a style. They have violence and a wit, a comedic side to them.

"I understand that that word 'Shakespearean' might mean very little to a vast majority of people. But for Paul and I as filmmakers, and to my fellow actors, that word meant a great deal."

"Sure," Liu, another skeptical American, says with a warm giggle. "Funny, everybody has a different way of perceiving. They have to bring it into their own context to get to where they need to emotionally and performance-wise."

When a film demands as much verbal dexterity and tricky character work as "Slevin" does, Liu agrees that stage training comes in much more handy than in, say, a "Charlie's Angels" movie.

"There's something very energizing about playing a character with that much dialogue," says the actress, a native New Yorker. "The most important thing is to understand the language as air and to breathe it as you would normally, no matter what style of language it is. You can't make it far from who you are. This way, whatever you're saying, people can relate to it."

Indeed, one thing that distinguishes "Slevin" from most of the recent snarky/bloody/twisty thrillers, is a vulnerable, sentimental streak that emerges from practically every character, regardless of how murderous, smart-mouthed or deceptive they may be.

"It's a movie that doesn't exist in any sort of real world," Hartnett notes. "Stylized dialogue, over-the-top circumstances, but with a heart that really beats - and it's understandable."

Each actor applied his or her best method to making that aspect of it ring true.

"There is a very, very good device that I would hand over to aspiring actors: When you want to find the humanity in your role, concentrate on the other actor in the scene, they will bring it out of you," Kingsley explains. "It was Josh that brought out the poignancy of my character, Bruce brought out his isolation. If you're only focusing on yourself, you give a narcissistic performance that's not worth watching. Spencer Tracy used to say, 'Make the other guy look good.' That's the trick."

"The less you think about it, the better it is, because then it becomes more organic," Liu adds. "When I was doing the scenes, I didn't think about what was going to be, per se. I did not focus on the plot, I was focusing mainly on the character and her feelings.

"To me, the story is mainly a love story. Everyone has a long-standing relationship based on something, trust or trust broken. I tend to focus on what's going on emotionally more than what else is happening, of course, 'cause I'm a girl.

Whether Shakespearean or Tarantinoesque, or maybe even Hitchcockian, at least movies such as "Slevin" approach entertainment as a form of active intelligence. In a media landscape overwhelmingly clogged with mind-numbing escapism, that's one label any movie should be proud to share.

"It can be very complicated, all that stuff," director McGuigan acknowledges. "But I wanted to do it so it felt organic enough, it felt like you were unveiling the story to people rather than just clunkily doing it. I wanted to give a bit of style to it."

"It's beautiful writing, it has almost a poetic rhythm to it," classicist Kingsley says of "Slevin." "There are quite a few different plots and subplots going on at the same time. I think it's quite thrilling for an audience to keep pace with the film, to really think and stay on their toes, kind of participate in the film."

"I love the idea of things that are a little bit tilted; it just makes it more interesting," Liu concludes. "There are movies that are enjoyable that are mindless entertainment, but it's nice sometimes to massage the brain a little."

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

IN THE MOLD OF TARANTINO

Believe it or not, it's been a dozen years since Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" made wordy, funny and super-complicated storytelling the coolest thing in crime movies. QT himself has only written and directed four other features ("Reservoir Dogs" before "Pulp," "Jackie Brown" and "Kill Bill" Vols. 1 and 2 since). And his scripts for "True Romance" and "Natural Born Killers" were directed by Tony Scott and Oliver Stone, respectively.

But his influence has been incalculable, up to and including today's new release, "Lucky Number Slevin." Many others have tried to turn the crazy/violent, hyper-literary trick. It's not easy to pull off, as the master's relatively small body of work indicates.

Some of the more notable attempts others have made, with varying degrees of success, include:

"Get Shorty" (directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, 1995) There's never been a better adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel (that includes "Jackie Brown") than this droll tale of a Miami mobster ("Pulp" comeback kid John Travolta) who effortlessly becomes the toast of Hollywood. Three stars

"The Usual Suspects" (Bryan Singer, 1995) Kevin Spacey won his first Oscar, and future winner Benicio Del Toro clocked his first notable role in this Byzantine narrative of dishonor among thieves. Three and one half stars

"Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" (Gary Fleder, 1995) Convoluted plotting and bizarre characters can feel awfully mannered absent real wit, verbal dexterity and any sense that those could be actual people on the screen. Proof that this most aggressively contrived of subgenres requires some heart, however black it may be. One star

"2 Days in the Valley" (John Herzfeld, 1996) Hit-and-miss ensemble crimedy had its moments, cleverly utilized San Fernando Valley locations and introduced Charlize Theron as a wicked, white-cat-suited glamazon. Two and one half stars

"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (Guy Ritchie, 1998) All that discursive dialogue gets retrofitted with cockney rhyming slang while the impossible-to-follow scheme is nicely fashioned in British lad attitude. Three stars

"Snatch" (Ritchie, 2000) Even wackier than "Barrels," with a wonderfully incomprehensible Brad Pitt thrown in for good measure. Ritchie was on his way to becoming the English Tarantino. Then he married Madonna. Three stars

- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

11 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) IT'S THEIR `LUCKY' DAY

Actors did the crime - and loved doing the time

(2) Bruce Willis

(3) Paul McGuigan

(4) Lucy Liu

(5) Josh Hartnett

(6) ``Getty Shorty''

(7) ``The Usual Suspects''

(8) ``Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead''

(9) ``2 Days in the Valley''

(10) ``Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''

(11) ``Snatch''

Box:

IN THE MOLD OF TARANTINO (see text)