Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 8/10
Who would have thought that a film featuring Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (WWTBAM)could actually be one of the best films of 2008? Danny Boyle directs his greatest film yet, an uplifting, joyful ode to life and hope that lovingly features India in all its squalor and beauty. While the film treads the cliched rags to riches, against all odds storyline, Boyle infuses the film with such maniac energy and features such a refreshing and talented ensemble cast that you can’t help but be swept away by the buoyant energy and verve that he brings to the film. Irish director Boyle crosses national borders and films this movie in India with a wholly Indian cast. And he delivers cinematic magic. While Danny Boyle isn’t the best or my favorite director, he is certainly one of the most versatile, easily moving from horror (28 Days Later), Scifi (Sunshine) and drugs drama (Trainspotting). And with Slumdog, he has achieved his coup de grace, a moving, heartfelt tale about love lost, growing up and karma. The film is about Dev Patel who plays Jamal Malik, a slumdog or streetkid who finds himself on the cusp of winning the top prize in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, and how, through a series of flashbacks it is revealed how his extraordinary life gives him the answers to the questions. While the series of coincidences are not particularly realistic, the audience is so caught up by the kinetic verve of this film that it almost doesn’t matter. And underneath the entertaining story lies the story of India itself as we progress through the times. Anil Kapoor deserves special mention as the slimy host of WWTBAM, and its young child actors manage to convincingly portray their roles.
It isn’t often that such an unabashedly feel good movie gets such high marks and ranks amongst the year’s best. But Slumdog Millionaire feels like a modern adaptation of Oliver Twist. While it has its missteps, like a none too convincing romantic story, some ridiculous coincidences, these are minor quibbles. Slumdog Millionaire is a typical rags to riches tale told with atypical verve. Who knows, it may just chart its own Cinderella path to the Oscars.
“Slumdog Millionaire, which was adapted from Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty), is, among other things, a terrific yarn, one so engrossing and surprising that the nature of the story’s structure — each question Jamal gets asked on the show corresponds with a traumatic or momentous moment from his childhood — never feels like a contrived framing device.”- Miami Herald
“Slumdog Millionaire is skillful entertainment, with the simple message that the most intense life experiences yield the greatest education.”- Globe and Mail
