Review: Slumdog Millionaire
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Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, winner of the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival, is poised to be the feel good movie of the season. Based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, Simon Beaufoy (the feel-good writer of the The Full Monty) crafted the uplifting story of Jamal (Dev Patel), a scrappy orphaned kid from the slums of Mumbai who not only wins 20 million rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but also gets the gorgeous girl.
Ugh.
For the record, I'm not against feeling good, but I ask more from a movie than a happy ending. I want to believe my happy ending; it needs to be credible. I also want to have some doubt, if only for a second, that the main character -- in this case, Jamal, that adorable, perfect hero -- might not get the happy ending he so richly deserves. A little suspense, please. In addition, I require that the machinations of the film don't creak and groan, drawing undue attention to the film's structure. Yes, I am picky that way.
When Slumdog Millionaire opens, Jamal is being tortured by the local police -- a stress position, a little electric shock, but no water boarding. (As the film progresses, you'll see how kind and compassionate the police can be.) What they want to know: how could this uneducated boy from the slums possibly have known the answers to all the difficult game show questions? He must have been cheating.
In a series of flashbacks, Slumdog Millionaire returns to each question and an accompanying memory that reveals a pivotal moment in Jamal's tumultuous life: how his mother was violently murdered before his eyes; how he met Latika (Freida Pinto), the orphan girl who will grow up to be the love of his life.
Each memory also conveniently provides an answer to a question in the game show. It's a conceit that grows horribly stale.
I wish Danny Boyle had the nerve to trust his audience to take a genuine dose of feel bad with his feel good. The children in Slumdog Millionaire are certainly adorable; many of the flashbacks have their charm. It's fine -- exciting even -- for Jamal to win the money; it's fine for him to get the girl. But what our hero doesn't realize -- and what the movie doesn't show -- is that the girl of his dreams no longer exists. According to Beaufoy's script, the lovely Latika had become the prized possession of a Mumbai gangster, but the movie never deals with the rape this almost certainly entailed.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto
Directed by: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Produced by: Paul Smith (XVI), Tessa Ross, Francois Ivernel
Running Time: 2 hrs.
Release Date: November 12th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some violence, disturbing images and language.
Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, winner of the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival, is poised to be the feel good movie of the season. Based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, Simon Beaufoy (the feel-good writer of the The Full Monty) crafted the uplifting story of Jamal (Dev Patel), a scrappy orphaned kid from the slums of Mumbai who not only wins 20 million rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but also gets the gorgeous girl.
Ugh.
For the record, I'm not against feeling good, but I ask more from a movie than a happy ending. I want to believe my happy ending; it needs to be credible. I also want to have some doubt, if only for a second, that the main character -- in this case, Jamal, that adorable, perfect hero -- might not get the happy ending he so richly deserves. A little suspense, please. In addition, I require that the machinations of the film don't creak and groan, drawing undue attention to the film's structure. Yes, I am picky that way.
When Slumdog Millionaire opens, Jamal is being tortured by the local police -- a stress position, a little electric shock, but no water boarding. (As the film progresses, you'll see how kind and compassionate the police can be.) What they want to know: how could this uneducated boy from the slums possibly have known the answers to all the difficult game show questions? He must have been cheating.
In a series of flashbacks, Slumdog Millionaire returns to each question and an accompanying memory that reveals a pivotal moment in Jamal's tumultuous life: how his mother was violently murdered before his eyes; how he met Latika (Freida Pinto), the orphan girl who will grow up to be the love of his life.
Each memory also conveniently provides an answer to a question in the game show. It's a conceit that grows horribly stale.
I wish Danny Boyle had the nerve to trust his audience to take a genuine dose of feel bad with his feel good. The children in Slumdog Millionaire are certainly adorable; many of the flashbacks have their charm. It's fine -- exciting even -- for Jamal to win the money; it's fine for him to get the girl. But what our hero doesn't realize -- and what the movie doesn't show -- is that the girl of his dreams no longer exists. According to Beaufoy's script, the lovely Latika had become the prized possession of a Mumbai gangster, but the movie never deals with the rape this almost certainly entailed.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto
Directed by: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Produced by: Paul Smith (XVI), Tessa Ross, Francois Ivernel
Running Time: 2 hrs.
Release Date: November 12th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some violence, disturbing images and language.
Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures