Slumdog Millionaire (R-2008)

For starters, you really have an interesting concept here. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". When he is one question away from the big prize, he is apprehended and accused of cheating because there is no way a "slumdog" from the streets of Mumbai could have the knowledge needed to answer these questions. The movie takes you from the interrogation room, to the stage of "Millionaire" to the streets of Mumbai as Jamal explains his life experiences helped him answer the questions that were on the show. Against a backdrop of severe poverty and a life of survival living on the streets, you have a love story as Malik is determined to help rescue his beloved Latika (Freida Pinto) from the life of "slavery" she finds herself in. Along the way, he is both helped and hurt by a brother (Madhur Mittal), who finds the only way out of the slums is to embrace and work with the criminal element that is present where they live. This film is deep, dark, entertaining and inspirational. The cast is exceptional and Danny Boyle's direction paints a great picture. The only element that bothered me were the subtitled scenes, which use some strange "decorative" way of displaying the subtitles which actually make them more difficult to read. I found even the performance of the "Millionaire" host, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), to be layered and crucial to the story. He nails the stage presence of the smiling, humorous host who is loved by everybody, but is a quite different man when the lights go down. I loved the movie and found that it worked so well on just abour every level. The powerful themes cut across all cultures (in fact I understand the framework of the story is based heavily on the Greek myth of Euridice and Orpheus), while still giving you a look at the tremendous class struggles present in India. I highly recommend this, but I will say this: I found it to be just short of being worthy of all of the hype that has surrounded it the last few months.

Grade: A

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