Capsule reviews of other films opening today ...

"Lucky Number Slevin"

Don't you just hate when the big surprise ending comes implausibly out of nowhere? So does director Paul McGuigan.

Everything you need to know about "Lucky Number Slevin" ( ) is carefully revealed long before the clever ending, if you know where to look. But I'm not telling.

Josh Hartnett plays it perfectly as the wrong guy caught between two dueling mob bosses and a police detective. It becomes clear just how perfectly, as layer upon layer of subterfuge is carefully peeled away.

Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci and Lucy Liu are good in supporting roles, but Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman are outstanding as gentlemanly underworld kingpins with violent tempers. In one key scene communicated purely through dialogue, Freeman and Kingsley collide in a powerful and grisly crescendo.

McGuigan blends aspects of noir with a stylized view of a gritty urban underworld and the high-rise warlords who control it. Just when "Lucky Number Slevin" is starting to look like a comedy, it becomes a violent crime story that morphs into a surprising murder mystery.

Rated R for strong violence, sexuality and language. Opens today at Squirrel Hill Theater only.

-- By John Hayes, Post-Gazette staff writer

"La Petite Jerusalem"

By the time Laura's mother was 18, she was married and living in Tunisia. But Laura (Fanny Valette) resides with her widowed mother, older sister, brother-in-law and their children in a suburban Paris apartment, is obsessed with philosophy and determined to spurn love. Her mother asks her, "What'll you do in life without love?"

This debut feature from writer-director Karin Albou introduces various threads -- Laura's attempt to copy Immanuel Kant's ritualistic behavior, her love for an Algerian journalist turned janitor, anti-Semitic violence in the neighborhood -- but doesn't adequately explore them. Only a subplot about her Orthodox sister's efforts to get marital advice, during her monthly ritual baths, gets satisfactory treatment.

"Petite Jerusalem" ( ) is steeped in contradictions, such as the brainy girl drowning in infatuation and intellectualism, and her sister, caught between religion-fueled modesty and desire. In the end, some life-changing shifts seem abrupt, and Albou proves more ambitious than successful.

Not rated but strictly adult in nature for nudity, sexuality and brief violence. In French and Hebrew, with English subtitles. Opens today at the Manor.

-- By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor

"Phat Girlz," opening in wide release today, was not screened for review.