Seven Times Lucky (2004)

Seven Times Lucky (2004)
Directed by
Gary Yates

IMDB

A good film-noir that is sadly underrated and overlooked. I love it.

You only con the ones you love.

When a veteran grifter loses ten grand of the boss' money on a bad horse tip, his talented young
protégé devises a risky scheme to get the money back... Film Noir with a yuletide twist, Seven Times
Lucky spins a twisting yarn in which three generations of crooks vie for a coveted prize on Christmas
Eve.

Toronto International Film Festival®
Programmers’ Notes

Harlan (Kevin Pollak), the hero of Gary Yates's sly, smart and seriously entertaining first feature
Seven Times Lucy, is the last in the line of scammers, hustlers and black market bottom-feeders. He's a bag man for Eddi (Babz Chula), one of Winnipeg's most prominent fences, and also runs his own sketchy crew including punkish pickpocket Fiona (Liane Balaban) and Sonny (Jonas Chernick), a
local dimwit Harlan keeps around primarily out of pity.
But then Harlan is the kind of mug who's easily put upon. As the film opens, he gets a hot tip on a horse race and has a whack of cash - the undelivered weekly droop - beckoning from the top of his dresser. Not surprisingly, the bet fails to pay off, sparking a series of cons that (given those involved)
invariably go down twisted.

Part thriller, part caper flick, but primarily a character study, Seven Times Lucky is reminiscent of
under appreciated seventies classics like Robert Benton's The Late Show or Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. Its characters are anachronisms, still living and dressing as if it were the forties or pretending to lead normal lives. (The first time we see the ruthless local kingpin, Mr. Five Wounds
(Fordon Tootoosis), he's making Christmas decorations.) Of course, these fillips give events a comic feel, but they also underline the central split between those whose affiliations extend beyond the cash nexus - and those who only care about money. Here, affectation is a mark of sincerity.

Exquisitely shot by Steve Cosens, Seven Times Lucky oozes a scuzzy yet sophisticated beauty. A shot of Harlan nursing a twisted ankle in the ice machine at his flophouse recalls Edward Hopper, while the motel where Harlan's gang plans its big con suggests a pink neon Lee Friedlander. The milieu
inverts the usual assumptions of hard-boiled detective stories: instead of the charismatic gumshoe, we follow a low-rent hoodlum (the type Marlowe would regularly beat up) anxious to escape his dead-end existence, but not desperate enough to screw just anyone. Expertly directed, Seven Times
Lucky features a stellar cast, led by Pollak, who delivers what could only be described as a real star turn - one Bogart might have admired.

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Specs:
File : 700 MB, duration: 1:22:38, type: AVI, 1 audio stream
Video : 515 MB, 872 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 640*352 (16:9), XVID (No QPEL, No GMC)
Audio : 185 MB, 313 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, Lame MP3
Language: English
Subs: English