Film reviews
Green Zone
Damon delivers a stirring performance in this thought-provoking film but it ultimately fails to distinguish itself from the recent influx of Middle East war films
My One And Only
A warm-hearted road trip movie which boasts strong performances
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant
Despite fun performances, this wannabe franchise lacks ambiance
Remember Me
Pattison delivers another brooding performance in this self-indulgent film about young love and deliverance
search the site
newsletter
Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter
Slumdog Millionaire (Film)
Rating: MA
Running Time: 120
Country: UK/USA
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Mia Drake, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla
Distributor: Icon
Film Worth: $10.50
Release Date: December 18, 2008
“…an energetic, absorbing film…”
Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's crowd-pleasing Slumdog Millionaire picked up The People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and has also notched up a number of US Critics' Awards and Golden Globes nominations. Always an interesting director, Boyle's skill with child actors is the backbone on which this unusual story stands. For as gripping as the narrative is, it is two young boys that command the camera.
Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) adapts Vikas Swarup's novel about Jamal (Skins' Dev Patel), a call-centre worker who beats the bank on India's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Naturally, he's arrested for fraud, and while locked in detention reveals his whole sorry story: growing up in Bombay's slums, his coercion into a gang of beggars, his brother's elevation by Mumbai's mobsters and, somewhat inevitably, star-crossed love. Yet the question remains - did Jamal cheat?
Slumdog Millionaire is mostly a single idea, albeit a nifty one: exploit Millionaire's natural tension to boost the story of a young man's aching heart. Boyle's production is as eye-catching as ever - it's all quick cuts and textured shots immersed in the compressed, radiant streets of India. Flashbacks let him explore different tones: comedy, tragedy, gangster violence, and even corporate drama. It's like Shekhar Kapur directing Monsoon Wedding on a Bollywood set, without the songs.
Brutality is a defining theme (ironic since the film was made prior to the devastating recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai), yet Boyle doesn't stop long enough to take advantage of the questions that the film almost raises - loss, fate or the Dickensian reality of modern India, for instance. He's too busy with tricky camera angles, and doesn't give himself quite enough time to get the story across the finishing line without looping. Rather like Millionaire itself, Boyle starts trying to create tension where it doesn't actually exist. None the less, for most of its running time, Slumdog Millionaire is an energetic, absorbing film that rises well above the pack.