Slumdog Millionaire

(2008)
Another film Im obviously behind the curve on, this is a movie by Scottish director Danny Boyle which chronicles the life of a young Indian man, Jamal (Dev Patel), as he struggles to make his way in the harsh world of the Mumbai slums. The framing device for the story is Jamals appearance on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The story rifles back and forth between Jamals challenging childhood (spent predominantly with his brother Salim (Madhur Matal) and a girl they befriend, Latika (Frieda Pinto) and his life as a young adult trying to scrape by as a tea server in a call center. While Jamal is on the show, each question asked leads to some sort of flashback which explains how he knows the answer and tells a story from his youth. Its an unusual but very effective way to reveal the relationship between Jamal and his brother, and to demonstrate some very harsh realities in the lives of the deeply poor in India. What I enjoyed most about the movie was how it told very little but showed almost everything. We arent spoon-fed the details we need to know about Jamal we have to pay attention and figure them out for ourselves, though Boyle gives us all the information we need. One icky scene where a young Jamal opts to take a plunge through the hole of an outhouse into a puddle of you-know-what all so that he can get to see his matinee idol and get an autograph speaks tomes about his commitment to the things he loves and desires, just as we learn Salims true nature when he sells the autograph for a few dollars to a local projectionist. The story is well-crafted and excellently told, and we are given all the right details we need to fully appreciate the story and its development. Ill admit to being sucked into it not only by the skill with which the film was made, but because of Jamals character trait of utter loyalty to that which he loves, and his devotion to Latika even after years of separation perhaps a bit of a stretch but for an old romantic like me a wonderful subplot (of course, when she grows up into the breathtakingly beautiful Frieda Pinto, well, that devotion pays off). A silly aside, Dev Patel reminded me very strongly of a friend of mine in college (the physical resemblance was strong enough so that they could have been cousins), a factor of course that none of you have. But frivolous personal connections aside, this is as good a movie as people ranted about two years ago, and certainly worth taking a look at; its an intelligent and emotionally satisfying movie, and how often do you see that? April 6, 2010