Lucky Numbers Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)November 5th, 2000
"Lucky Numbers" - Noirish Comedy is Darker than Funny
by Homer Yen
(c) 2000
Here's a piece of advice that you've always heard.
"Don't wait until the last minute!" If you do, you'll
have very few options at your disposal. In the dark
comedy, "Lucky Numbers," manic Russ Richards (John
Travolta) finds that he's at the point where he's
waited way too long. With no other way out, his only
route of escape is down the expressway of amorality.
His journey towards the dark side stems from his
idiotic side ventures. He's a greedy schemer and it
is this shortcoming that puts him on the brink of bankruptcy. All of his ideas seem destined to fail.
In his latest enterprise, he has opened a snowmobile dealership. However, the area is experiencing an unseasonable heat wave. And as Christmas grows near,
wading pools are selling faster. He's quickly losing
money, while the bank wants to foreclose on his home.
He'll need to come up with a whopping plan to bail him
out of his precarious situation.
Yet, being unethical is not something that seems
totally alien to our desperate hero. He oozes a slick confidence and a hokey charm that suggests that no
problem is too big and that no solution is too
bizarre. Most of all, he's ready to do what it takes
to bail out of his financial woes. Or is he?
Realizing that his station broadcasts the Pennsylvania
State lottery drawing, he conjures up a plan to fix
the lottery and walk away a multimillionaire. With
the help of his strip club owner friend, Gig (Tim
Roth), and Crystal the Lottery Girl (Lisa Kudrow),
they design and execute the unimaginable with
surprising efficiency. So far so good. However, when
other people get a whiff of what they've done, they
all want a piece of the winnings. Russ gets
blackmailed for so much that he's now in even more
debt! As more and more complications arise, his
options narrow and become less savory. Soon, (and
this is one of the film's more clever twists),
fearless Russ is reduced to a cowardly state while the
daffy Lotto girl ascends into a greed-driven 'cleaner'
who goes out to tie up any loose ends.
Droll it is thanks to Travolta's bravura performance
with his exaggerated voice inflections and mannerisms,
but it's not as dark or as edgy as it should be. This
is the kind of film where zany characters and absurd situations drive the film. Some, like the inclusion
of a two-bit but touchy-feely thug (Michael Rappaport)
and the asthmatic accomplice (Michael Moore) who
wanted to use his share "to buy his church a new
furnace and then use the rest to start an adult book
store" worked to heighten the film's tone of
absurdity. But, others like the TV station exec (Ed O'Neill) seemed flat while the inclusion of the
dimwitted cop (Bill Pullman) who stumbles onto the
case, didn't seem necessary, although it did add a few goofball moments. Most awkward, however, was Kudrow,
on whose shoulder the spirit of this film squarely
lies. Crystal is liberated, conniving, and greedy.
Kudrow doesn't possess that important sense of brazen vulgarity, which would have made this film really fun.
So, like playing the lottery, a few numbers hit and a
few miss. Better luck next time.
Grade: B-
S: 1 out of 3
L: 2 out of 3
V: 2 out of 3
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
