I had the opportunity to see this film at the Denver Film Festival this saturday. For those of you that live in the Denver area, I highly recommend the festival. This film was shown at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House downtown. It is a unique experience in and of itself.The film takes place in Mumbai, a gigantic, sprawling metroplex in India. The main character, Jamal Malik, has grown up a "slumdog," a very poor orphan in a large city. The details of his life are rather horrific. When he is older he somehow falls into being on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He ends up winning a whole lot of money, but the authorities think he must have cheated. How could a slumdog know all these questions? The prejudice is pretty blatant.
British director Danny Boyle (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Millions) brings us this modern day fairy-tale about love, fate, knowledge, and sacrifice. The storytelling device Boyle uses is brilliant. Jamal's past unfolds to us through the questions of the game show. We learn about how and why Jamal knows the answers. And we are confronted with the question of why Jamal knows the answers. Is it luck? Brilliance? Cheating? Or Fate? This is the central question to the film. And this forces us to confront our own views on life and what we believe about our future. In addition, the love story parallel is quite beautiful and touching, in a non-cheesy way (I have my "cheese-radar" on pretty high most of the time).
The cultural aspect of the film, and India itself, is enlightening. It helped me understand India from more of a first-person perspective (at least that one slice of India, Mumbai's slums). I was a little worried we would get some Bollywood crap, but that didn't happen until the credits (which was pretty obnoxious, but wasn't really part of the movie). The music was fantastic and added quite a bit to the story, especially the multitue of paralleling chase scenes. It seemed like Jamal was always running away, or running toward, something.
Slumdog Millionaire is a beautiful story, told in a unique and powerful way. It does help us to understand what makes us human, what makes us love. It confronts us with ideas of fate and intelligence. It looks beautiful. This film has been getting a boatload of Oscar buzz, and it is all well-deserved. When it is released here in Denver I encourage everyone to go experience this journey into a modern day fairy-tale.
4 comments:
O, I must admit that I am shocked to see this in your blog. I saw a preview for this movie before Synecdoche, New York (which, by the way, is madness. Go see it. It will blow your mind, if you can make sense of it, I don't know if I have yet). And, to be honest, when this preview ended, I literally thought to myself, "That looks like the worst movie ever made... ever. Just awful." But now I'm kind of interested. I mean, I probably won't see it in theaters because I still think it looks dumb, but I'll watch it on video.
Your review is beautifully written. The accurate portrayal of india makes this movie so much better. I was told that the boys that played Jamal as a child were actually from the slums. The cinematography of the film was beautiful and the unique way of story telling keep it fresh.
I just saw this tonight, and the first thing I did was read your review. Ha. Ok, I was so excited to see this movie, and besides the whole "Bollywood" singing and dancing at the end, it was brilliant. I am suprised to see Boyle or whatever his name is also directed 28 Days Later. Because that was a horrible movie. The scene that stuck out to me the most is when he is telling the officers about how he knew the answer to the potrayed God and what he held in his hand. As Jamal and his brother were running away and they stopped and saw the little blue boy in the alley... wow. The angles and the re-occuring seens in this made the movie great. Of topic, I am making a request that you review Burn After Reading. :)
Gonna see this one soon, looks & sounds like a sweet movie...
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