Lucky

The plot: A gold-digging woman ends up attaching herself to the wrong person when she marries a rich serial killer.

Despite how oppressively dark the summary sounds, this is actually fairly light-hearted and harmless. The plot is essentially a parody of classic noir movies, with a femme fatale and guilty protagonist being pursued by a dogged cop. Everything is played for laughs, and there are few serious scenes. The movie starts off a bit boring and unfunny, but it gets better toward the middle once it can abandon the clichéd romantic comedy elements and switch to being more of a black comedy. The tone is still more lighthearted and wacky than I'd like for a black comedy, but it did at least keep me vaguely amused for the remaining runtime.

There's no real blood, gore, nudity, or violence. If you're looking for something like Very Bad Things, I think you'll be very disappointed. However, if you're looking for a quirky romantic comedy with a dark edge to it, you'll probably enjoy Lucky. My own tastes are more in line with Very Bad Things.

Lucky is a serial killer's tale through the eye of a cynic. It's a dark comedy that anyone can easily enjoy.

The good. Surprising scenario, nicely put together. When you think it's going to go left, it goes right. Imaginative ideas in the story. Excellent ending. This is not your Hollywood mush, it has realism mixed in the movie flair.

The bad. A few logical hitch, but easily ignored.

The ugly. Nothing.

The result. If you like films that are different, offbeat, this is for you. Everyone else should at least give it a try.

"I think you won the lottery." Shy and Goofy Ben (Hanks) has had a crush on the receptionist Lucy (Graynor) at his office for a long time. She doesn't know he exists. When Ben comes home and finds that he has won the 36 million dollar lottery Lucy finally talks to him. When secrets come out their relationship, and morals are challenged. This is a hard movie to review. While it wasn't a bad movie and did have some funny parts, the trailer is misleading and this wasn't what I was expecting. The trailer made it look like more of a comedy then it was. Hanks does a good job playing this type of character, but the movie overall felt a little flat and boring. Like so many other movies recently it feels like there is something missing to make this better. It also felt like with this idea they could have done so much more. All that being said this movie is not terrible and if you go in expecting less of a comedy then the trailer shows you will probably enjoy this. Overall, not a bad movie, but nothing like I was expecting. Because of my expectations I didn't like it as much as I thought. I give it a B-.

Would I watch again? - Most likely no.

Just wasted 103 minutes of my life and I'm afraid there's no way of getting back those precious minutes. Two hours ago I was in a good mood- now I feel like everything is pointless...

This attempt at comedy, or black comedy, fails miserably and completely.

Seriously, it's awful. In pretty much every way. If you are reading this because you are thinking of watching it, do something else. Honestly, I'm helping you.

To say it's like made-for-TV-movies is an insult to made-for-TV-movies.

I'm going to cheer myself up by spending another 103 minutes watching some shopping channel in a foreign language that I don't understand.

I'm stunned by the reviews this film received. It makes me wonder what audiences are looking for. Giant robot cars, maybe? Stereo-typical heroes and bad guys (with capes!)? This is an independent film and the reviews read like they were written by a church group. This film is innovative and clever and extraordinarily well written. Sublette and Cates' work here deserves better reviews than these. I feel bad that they have to be subjected to this type of unenlightened ridicule for such a wonderful film. I suspect that the film just didn't get a chance to find its audience (which is not the Bridesmaids/Hangover crowd). Lucky is a different type of romantic comedy that successfully takes brave risks and they all pay off. On to specifics:

The screenplay was an extraordinary piece of writing. I won't give anything away, because if you like quirky independent film, you should see this movie. But, some of the scenes were beautifully nuanced. In particular, the final scene, which was an extremely difficult scene to pull off. Sublette manages to make it work. The pacing, editing, and direction are all as good as it gets. And the way the screenplay subtly builds these characters so that we believe their relationship (as bizarre as it may be) is masterful.

The acting is superlative. Hanks and Ari Graynor are ideally cast as nebbish serial killer and quirky love interest, and their performances are exquisite. I was amazed at their work in this film. The emotionality of the scenes required refined acting chops and they delivered.

I'd kill to work with any one of these creative talents and think they should be lauded for this film.