Slumdog Millionaire
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Slumdog Millionaire is currently getting a lot of hype and overhype can easily impair the enjoyment of a good (but not as great as you’ve been led to believe) movie. Don’t be a victim of overhype…this isn’t Danny Boyle’s best movie. It might be his most technically proficient film and probably deserves to be in the top three Danny Boyle films of all time (Trainspotting is not in my top 3, for the record), but it’s not the masterpiece that everyone is clamoring about. Slumdog Millionaire might even be a masterpiece compared to most of the competition currently at the top of the box office (Paul Blart: Mall Cop? Underworld 3? Hotel for Dogs? My Bloody Valentine 3D? Inkheart? Bride Wars? Notorious?), but surely that is not the proper context by which it should be judged.
Slumdog Millionaire depicts a multitude of crimes, abject poverty (one columnist asserts that the film is “poverty porn”) and numerous horrible acts of violence and torture (most of these events involve children as well), but somehow, amazingly, it comes across as a feel-good fairytale by the closing credits. This alone is a masterful feat, but the way the film intricately weaves the multiple storylines together while jumping back and forth through time is even more impressive. In fact, the real story takes place mostly in the past and the children acting in the flashback sequences end up carrying the film. Apparently there has been a bit of controversy as the two youngest child actors still live in the slums (did they get paid enough?), though the benefits of attending school for the first time in their lives will bring them an added bonus if they stick with it.
- Score
- 7/10
There’s even a lawsuit against some of the people involved with the film alleging that the title itself is derogatory and violates the human rights of India’s slum dwellers. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy invented the term “slumdog” during his visits to the Mumbai slums to use as a metaphor for the protagonist and claims that it was never intended to be insulting or offensive. The term is actually an excellent choice and enhances the film in it’s own small way. The term “chai-wallah” was used in a slightly derogatory manner in the film, but it probably wasn’t meant as an insult to tea servers everywhere. Besides…if the movie had been called Chai-wallah Millionaire (the next best choice) the significance of “slumdog” would have been lost.
