"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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