In a nutshell...Well what do we have here? A film set in India, based around the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and stars one of the kids from Skins, lets be honest for a minute if I had heard that before knowing anything else about it I probably would have dismissed the film right there. However when told who was the director it was then worth a closer look. Brought to you by the fantastic Danny Boyle who is never one to reside in one genre of film for longer than about 5 minutes bringing you an eclectic array of films such as last year's Sci-fi thriller Sunshine and (one of my personal favourites) the unnerving horror epic of 28 Days Later and if you haven't seen or heard of any of those then you've bound to have come across his film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainstopping starring (a then unknown) Ewan McGregor.
Slumdog Millionaire centres around the life story, in flashback form, of the young Jamal Malik (played by Skins' actor Dev Patel) and his progression through the slums of various parts of India with his headstrong erratic brother Salim while converging with the real time events of Jamal's lucky appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and how convinently the questions he gets asked on the show relate to key moments in his life up to this point. The other plot point is obvious the evolving relationship between Patel's Jamal and his soul mate Latika played by Freida Pinto (it's ok I can't name any other film she's been in either...) which results in one of the most touching and endearing love stories in a film I've came across in some time. One of the things that really struck me while watching this movie was the gritty and realistic portrayal Boyle gives of life in the slums and what people living in this environment have to do to survive on a daily basis, be this through lying, cheating or stealing then so be it. The cast pull off a brilliant collective performance in this film, however (and I don't mean this in a bad way) there wasn't any actor that really stood out for me and took away from the rest of the film, the real star however was probably India itself, and the beautiful job the lads in cinematography did to capture the epic landscapes and the gritty run-down slums that had a continuing presence over the film from beginning to end.
So is it the "Feel good movie of 2009"? Quite frankly no. However, is it one of the best films of the year overall? Well yes actually. Don't let the marketing fool you though, this isn't the happy uplifting film that some people claim it to be, it has violence, torture, lies, deceit, betrayal, child abuse and a game show host with a dodgy beard. If you want an uplifting film with a similar kinda theme by Danny Boyle, go watch 2004's Millions. If you want a film about one young man's quest to be with the one he loves and the one chance to escape a world of poverty and corruption then, you know what, this might just be the film for you. Slumdog Millionaire is a fantastic film, and deserves its recent success at the Golden Globes and the guaranteed awards it is bound to get from its 10 Oscar nominations.
Stand out scene...
There are various beautiful scenes throughout the movie but the climax is the scene everyone will talk about where Jamal uses his phone a friend on the final question which starts the unravelling of the film's endnote. Watch it and you'll see what I mean...
Stand out quote...
To be honest it won't be a film that you'll be quoting in the pub with your mates for years to come but for sheer emotional value "If it wasn't for Ram or Allah, we'd still have a mother." watch out for that quote and you'll understand...
If you like this movie watch...
Personally I consider this to be more Danny Boyle's film than the actors' so by all means check out his 2004 under rated flick Millions and if you haven't seen them by now (quite frankly shame on you if you haven't) Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. But if you liked Patel's performance (I did..) then by all means catch him in the original series of Skins, but frankly bigger and much better things await this lad. Watch out...
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