Slumdog Millionaire (D. Boyle, 2008)

The last few years, audiences have been treated to a film that sweeps all the major precursor awards on the way to winning the Best Picture Oscar. Last year, it was the Coen Brothers' chilling adaptation of No Country for Old Men; two years ago it was Scorsese's crafty mob drama The Departed. This year, British director Danny Boyle has invited us to regale with his Slumdog Millionaire, one of this years most entertaining and rewarding, albeit flawed, motion pictures.
Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Jamal, an impoverished Indian teen who is a contestant on Mumbai's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Jamal (Dev Patel) works his way up to the final question, a question worth twenty million rupees, and is arrested under the suspicion of cheating on the show. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal reveals stories, some painful and others comedic, from his past which explain how he knew the answers. The stories range from colorful anecdotes such as diving through a toilet hole to meet a Bollywood movie star to macabre tales about the death of his mother and downfall of his brother, Salim. Above all, he reveals that the reason he went onto the show in the first place is love, and that theme profoundly resonates throughout the entire piece.
Director Danny Boyle is one of the more versatile and innovative auteurs working today. From his breakthrough Trainspotting, a story about a heroin addict struggling to get by in Edinburgh, Scotland, to zombie flick 28 Days Later..., he manages to keep his films enthralling and consequential without being pretentious. Slumdog is no exception to this. The movie has a life of its own; vibrant, full of vim, and downright fun. What really impresses me about Slumdog Millionaire and Boyle's direction is the film's balance. The intense and depressing scenes hit home, but aren't outdone, rather eclipsed by the inspirational moments. This stability is what makes Slumdog the feel good movie of the year, and also probably why it has been connecting with audiences so well.
Just about every aspect of this film deserves recognition, but none moreso than A.R. Rahman's score and Anthony Dod Mantle's photography. Boyle films are typically packed with color, part of what makes them so interesting to watch. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle uses bright lighting to its fullest, each of his 35mm shots brimming with buoyancy and assurance, even in the most nefarious of situations. Rahman's score accompanies the action on the screen perfectly; never drowning out the activity but evoking a livelihood in the viewer. The songs are upbeat and ebullient, making Jamal's transition from 'slumdog' to 'millionaire' more effective than the screen story can simply tell.
Normally, a good half of my article is devoted to the movie's acting. However, Slumdog Millionaire has no great or poor performance, just a collection of solid ones. The strongest performance comes from Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays Jamal at his youngest, and although barely old enough for kindergarten, carries the first third of the film quite eloquently. The other performance I'd single out is Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar, the gameshow host with questionable intentions. Kapoor is very charismatic and embodies the 'slick' persona quite well. The weakest performance is from Freida Pinto as Latika, the love interest. Although not bad, Pinto's delivery of the film's final line is pretty poor, and doesn't live up to the film's quality. This could be due to the sappy nature of the line though, and since Latika is Pinto's first screen role, her delivery is excusable.
Slumdog isn't a perfect film by any means. The screenplay, written by Simon Beaufoy, is very powerful but leaves spacious room to critique. For example, many of the answers that Jamal gives are derived from memories from when he was three, four and five. Realistically, nobody remembers that perfectly that far back, and even traumatic events would be distorted in order to cope with them. Also, the script is rather cliched and structured very similarly to City of God (another rags to riches 'slum' movie, except taking place in Brazil), which hampers the innovative nature of the film. The cliches also take away from the film's realism, and at times disconnect the audience from the story (this is what I call the fairytale effect; everybody wants to be the princess, but they know they won't, therefore they can't empathize with the princess' struggle). There are some questionable ethics to the film's production and distribution, particularly complains that it exploits the city of Mumbai. Having never been to Mumbai, I can't have an opinion on this, but the majority of the backlash is coming from people who live there, so I'd reason that the charges have some validity.
Overall, Slumdog Millionaire is a dynamic motion picture that although not flawless, deserves to be seen.