Slumdog Millionaire

05 Jan 2009
Critics rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Reviewed by Tom Charity, LOVEFiLM

Only three 2008 films broke into the Internet Movie Database all-time Top 50 last year. The Dark Knight (#5), WALL-E (#34), and Slumdog Millionaire (#45).

That’s some tribute to Danny Boyle’s high-energy Indian melodrama – after all, it has had nothing like the exposure of the other, mega-budget offerings, and outside of its London Film Festival closing slot it hasn’t even shown on home turf yet.

In case you have missed the buzz, this is the story of Jamal (Dev Patel, from TV’s Skins), an uneducated chai-boy who – as the movie begins – is one answer away from the 20 million rupee grand prize in the local version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”.

Cast details

It’s an improbable turn of events – so improbable, in fact, that the show’s presenter-producer (Anil Kapoor) has the young man bundled off and interrogated by the police before taping the next show. Is he a cheat? A genius? Just plain lucky? Or is something more mysterious still at play here?

The movie unfolds in flashback during the interrogation, as Jamal explains how he knew each answer – explanations that also serve to give us his life story: how he grew up in the slums of Mumbai with his brother Salim; how they were orphaned; fell into the hands of villains; and eventually escaped to make their own way in the world.

It’s also a love story: Jamal repeatedly crosses paths with Latika (played as a young woman by Freida Pinto), the love of his life and also the reason he’s on the show.

Slumdog Millionaire: Ayush Mahesh Khedeka, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Rubina Ali

These bare bones give very little sense of the film’s appeal, which is all about the bravura storytelling, the violence and comedy, romanticism and poverty, all spilling across, over and into each other in a style oddly reminiscent of Boyle’s biggest previous hit, Trainspotting.

An early scene in which the young Jamal plunges into a cesspool automatically reminds us of Ewan McGregor’s adventures in the filthiest toilet in Scotland – though the scene was the invention of screenwriter Simon "The Full Monty" Beaufoy, and was written before Boyle was attached to the project. It’s hard to say why exactly, but both scenes are crucial to the success of the movies – fashioning unexpectedly crowd-pleasing moments from a reality that is, literally, s***. It’s as if Boyle confronts us with our worst imagining of a certain kind of depravity, and then gives it a liberating, comic fillip. You only have to see the movie in a crowded cinema to feel how the audience appreciates that permission to laugh and enjoy the show.

Inevitably some people will have misgivings about such levity – as if Boyle is making light of other people’s suffering. But what makes the movie work is the life force that runs through it, the vigor and vitality of its young hero (played by three different actors over the course of the movie). You can tell that the filmmakers were dazzled by India – and not the James Ivory Heritage India of EM Forster and cricket, but the whole stinking, beautiful shebang: the smells and the colours, the corruption and the spirituality, the slums and even the call centres. Boyle gives us the whole sensory overload, and from the ground up: the child’s point of view. It’s immediate and vivid and true.

There's terrific verve about this movie, an appetite for life that beggars such pedantry.

Over the next two months we’re about to be deluged with worthy Oscar-contenders about “important” subjects. Most of them are worth seeing and one or two are very good, but none of them is as purely enjoyable on a visceral level as Slumdog Millionaire.

Ironically, for a while it looked as if it might not get distributed in the US at all. I was lucky enough to see it at its second public outing, at the Toronto Film Festival, and already Boyle (who introduced the screening) was trying to dampen down expectations. I don’t think his caution was necessary, but of course there will be a backlash, as there always is. We might as well admit from the start that Slumdog Millionaire is contrived; that the early sequences with the young children are more successful than the melodramatic climax; and that it doesn’t generate profound insights into the human soul.

So what? There’s terrific verve about this movie, an appetite for life that beggars such pedantry. It’s a ride and a trip, and you come out of it exhilarated by the experience.

Reviews

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  • Critics' reviews of Slumdog Millionaire

    View all
  • 4 stars out of

    Danny Boyles Slumdog Millionaire is a film so upbeat and colourful that, by the time youre relaying its... read more on Time Out

    • Dave Calhoun, 
    • Time Out
  • Most helpful members' reviews (3) of Slumdog Millionaire

    View all
  • 316 out of 357 people found this review helpful

    * * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

    Rated - 2 stars

    Exaggeration of Ground Zero

      • A customer from London
  • 65 out of 91 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    A good story line but difficult to get into.

    This film was NOT what I expected at all when I took my Nephew to see it at the cinema. I had no idea what it was about so wasn't sure what to expect.... but it wasn't what I got!

    Not sure if its worth a watch, I think maybe it is purely because it is like no other film I have seen so far. It does have a good story line which keeps you gripped & wondering what is going to happen, but at the same time its slightly dull and you kind of want to speed it up after the first hour or so and I just got bored.

      • A customer from Buckinghamshire
  • 48 out of 51 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    This movie is 20 million rupees!

    I had never heard of this movie, so when my friend suggested we see it on my recent visit to San Francisco, I thought 'Hey, why not?' I was completely overwhelmed.

    I don't know if it was because I knew nothing about it which made it so much more enjoyable or what, but this is a real gem and it made me laugh out loud, smile loads and I even got a tiny bit emotional when it finished.... (Please note I was also suffering from a cold at the time of watching this movie so the streaming eyes and runny nose were in no way related...)

    I love what Danny Boyle has done with the Bollywood genre.

    I recommend that you see this movie as soon as it's out in the UK!

      • A customer from London
  • Most recent members' reviews (2) of Slumdog Millionaire

    View all
  • 30 out of 36 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    Too many cliches

    I saw this in the cinema last night and was disappointed. Slumdog Millionaire is colourful, with an impressive frenetic energy, but is bursting at the seems with terrible clichés.

    The central Kane-and-Abel gangsta story is hackneyed and predictable, complete with earnest confrontations atop unfinished tower blocks (cue sunglasses, much smoking, and lines like ‘look down there brother – the slum where we grew up’) and love triangle with beautiful street-urchin-turned-prostitute-turned-gangster’s- moll. There isn’t much you don’t see coming a mile off.

    A lack of real dramatic tension means that when director Danny Boyle isn’t reverting to the aforementioned cliché, he has to bombard us with pop-video editing and an almost constantly thumping sound track. I could have done with about three fewer of the would-be adrenaline fuelled chase sequences that seemed to occur about every ten minutes.

    The fact that many of the events, including the central game-show premise, are completely implausible shouldn’t be a problem – it’s a movie after all. But Boyle failed to make me believe them, so the whole thing came over as plain daft.

    On the plus side there’s some very cute kids (who manage to steal the show despite having to say, in all seriousness, lines like ‘it is our destiny’) and some fantastically shot action sequences in the first hour. One of these - a violent sectarian raid on the slum - was the point I felt most engaged with the story, despite one of the attackers shouting out some daft line like ‘Let’s get these Muslims!’ The heady environment (you can almost smell it) of the Mumbai slum is one thing Boyle realises brilliantly.

      • Andrews from London
  • 9 out of 10 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Boyle at his best

    A brilliantly heart-warming film with characters that you will care about. Great acting and cinematography too. Definitely worth a watch

      • A customer from Stafford
  • 316 out of 357 people found this review helpful

    * * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

    Rated - 2 stars

    Exaggeration of Ground Zero

      • A customer from London
  • 65 out of 91 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    A good story line but difficult to get into.

    This film was NOT what I expected at all when I took my Nephew to see it at the cinema. I had no idea what it was about so wasn't sure what to expect.... but it wasn't what I got!

    Not sure if its worth a watch, I think maybe it is purely because it is like no other film I have seen so far. It does have a good story line which keeps you gripped & wondering what is going to happen, but at the same time its slightly dull and you kind of want to speed it up after the first hour or so and I just got bored.

      • A customer from Buckinghamshire
  • 48 out of 51 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    This movie is 20 million rupees!

    I had never heard of this movie, so when my friend suggested we see it on my recent visit to San Francisco, I thought 'Hey, why not?' I was completely overwhelmed.

    I don't know if it was because I knew nothing about it which made it so much more enjoyable or what, but this is a real gem and it made me laugh out loud, smile loads and I even got a tiny bit emotional when it finished.... (Please note I was also suffering from a cold at the time of watching this movie so the streaming eyes and runny nose were in no way related...)

    I love what Danny Boyle has done with the Bollywood genre.

    I recommend that you see this movie as soon as it's out in the UK!

      • A customer from London
  • 36 out of 49 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 0 stars

    worst film iv ever seen

    prob the worst film iv ever seen,dont feed into the hype.its poor!

      • A customer from Belfast/derry
  • 30 out of 36 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    Too many cliches

    I saw this in the cinema last night and was disappointed. Slumdog Millionaire is colourful, with an impressive frenetic energy, but is bursting at the seems with terrible clichés.

    The central Kane-and-Abel gangsta story is hackneyed and predictable, complete with earnest confrontations atop unfinished tower blocks (cue sunglasses, much smoking, and lines like ‘look down there brother – the slum where we grew up’) and love triangle with beautiful street-urchin-turned-prostitute-turned-gangster’s- moll. There isn’t much you don’t see coming a mile off.

    A lack of real dramatic tension means that when director Danny Boyle isn’t reverting to the aforementioned cliché, he has to bombard us with pop-video editing and an almost constantly thumping sound track. I could have done with about three fewer of the would-be adrenaline fuelled chase sequences that seemed to occur about every ten minutes.

    The fact that many of the events, including the central game-show premise, are completely implausible shouldn’t be a problem – it’s a movie after all. But Boyle failed to make me believe them, so the whole thing came over as plain daft.

    On the plus side there’s some very cute kids (who manage to steal the show despite having to say, in all seriousness, lines like ‘it is our destiny’) and some fantastically shot action sequences in the first hour. One of these - a violent sectarian raid on the slum - was the point I felt most engaged with the story, despite one of the attackers shouting out some daft line like ‘Let’s get these Muslims!’ The heady environment (you can almost smell it) of the Mumbai slum is one thing Boyle realises brilliantly.

      • Andrews from London
  • 29 out of 33 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    So true

    If not my recent trip to Mumbai and Delhi I could not judge this movie on it's factual value.

    The slum story is so true and realistic that watching it was like having a deja vu. What I love about this movie is that it is not hiding anything from you. You can see real India, without any touch-ups typical for Hollywood productions. Please do not expect anything similar to Darjeeling Limited (so unrealistic movie) because you will get disappointed.

    The plot is good and happily enough not in a Bollywood style. Really worth watching but be aware that some scenes may be disturbing for someone who never visited a 3rd world country.

      • A customer from Leeds
  • 22 out of 23 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star [Highly rated reviewer]

    What the...!

    Did I just see the same film as everyone else?!

    This has to be the most overrated film in history!

      • RichieG from Gillingham
  • 20 out of 22 people found this review helpful

    * * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

    Rated - 5 stars

    Insight

      • A customer from High Wycombe
  • 20 out of 22 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars

    The most overhyped film ever!

    In lieu of anything else half decent in 2008 this film has swept the board for just about every award almost including best cleaning lady. But what a let down. It's limp, predictable, thoroughly unoriginal and twee. It may as well be called: 'Danny Boyle Goes to India'.

    Yawn!

      • A customer from London
  • 19 out of 19 people found this review helpful

    * * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

    Rated - 5 stars

    best film of 2009?

      • A customer from Glasgow
  • Critics' reviews

  • 4 stars out of

    Danny Boyles Slumdog Millionaire is a film so upbeat and colourful that, by the time youre relaying its... read more on Time Out

    • Dave Calhoun, 
    • Time Out