It's rare to be taken by surprise by a film -- those all-too-infrequent occasions when you go into a film knowing almost nothing and walk out completely enchanted. But that happened with Slumdog Millionaire, the newest film from Danny Boyle. Boyle's best known for the scrappy, scabby drugs-and-thugs film Trainspotting, but in recent years, with movies like Millions, he's also shown that he has a heart; Slumdog Millionaire pulses with the vital, scrappy energy of a young talent but also has the hope and humanity of a mature artist -- as well as giving audiences a brilliant, bold, epic sweep that combines heart-breaking romance with nerve-wracking suspense. It's easily one of the best films of 2008.
In Mumbai, India, 18-year-old Jamal (Dev Patel) is being beaten and interrogated by the police. His crime? Working his way through the tough questions on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" until he's one question away from taking home the grand prize. But Jamal's uneducated. He came up from terrifying poverty. He's a tea boy for a high-tech customer service firm; how could a poor piece of trash -- a "slumdog" like him -- be beating a show that's defeated professors, civil servants, and others? Bloody but unbowed, Jamal explains how, exactly he's winning -- by telling the stories from his life that taught him the things he needed to know to get to where he is on the show. ...
And as Jamal tells the cops -- and us -- his stories, we learn that Jamal isn't cheating, and he isn't playing the game for the money; he's playing the game because it's only way to reach out to Latika (Freida Pinto) who he met as a young boy and still loves, even though she's the kept woman of the crime lord his brother works for. It's a million-to-one shot, with a lot more on the line than the millions Jamal might win if he can get the last question, but Jamal's got the brains -- and the instincts, and the heart -- to just maybe make his risky plan work. ...
Slumdog Millionaire pulls off an amazing balancing act; part of it feels modern and fresh and vulgar and new, pulsing with the life and energy of India in the 21st century ... and part of it has the classic scope and sweep of a classic literary adventure like The Three Musketeers or Great Expectations. Jamal's world is completely unlike ours -- the poverty, the close-crush crowded streets, the unimaginable cruelty -- and yet it feels immediately, immensely real to us. And Jamal's story seems so impossible and impossible it's almost impossible to imagine it -- until Patel's performance and Boyle's direction pull you into it until you're on the edge of your seat rooting for a kid on the verge of a comeback story unlike anything you've ever seen. The cops (including Irfan Khan's steely detective), the local crime boss, the oily-smooth host of the show (Anil Kapoor) -- they're all against Jamal. And all he has is love, and faith, and the right answers.
Slumdog Millionaire is also funny, with light and music and joy in it -- and at the same time it isn't shy about showing us the worst kind of human behavior as well. There's music and excitement and wonder in it -- and grim, terrifying hate and violence as well. Those contradictions don't break Slumdog Millionaire -- they make it bigger, better, and they make sure that you can understand just how fiercely Jamal's going to have to try and fight to save the day and Latika. As Jamal, Dev Patel's a wonder -- brave, funny, charming, resolute, and human, flawed but strong, carefully-written but immediately charismatic. Looking at him, you want to root for him; after a while, Boyle's direction, Patel's performance and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy's script give you every reason to.
Slumdog Millionaire takes place in India, but get past the occasional bits of slang or the pieces of dialogue in Hindi and it could be any big, modern city where money matters and things are always happening; at the same time, India's soul and songs run through every moment of the film to make it unique, real, triumphant. Slumdog Millionaire opens this weekend in limited release, but will soon be playing at a theater near you; if you had to name one film this year worth seeing on the big screen in all its glory, this is the one.
great movie i recommend this movie. low budget and the whole family will enjoy.
Posted by: GODIS | March 02, 2009 at 11:01 PM
hi this is helpful
Posted by: bubba | April 28, 2009 at 09:07 AM