Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

!! WARNING:  May contains spoilers !!

OVERALL: 9/10

Plot: 8/10
Cinematography: 9.5/10
Entertainment value: 9/10
Movie to wait for DVD:  Should be watched first in the theatre.
Rewatchability: Yes, for the cinematography
Movie to purchase:  Yes.

An uneducated streetkid wins millions in “Who wants to be a Millionaire” TV show.  Is he a genius?  Did he cheat?  Was it luck?  Or is it true destiny?  A romantic drama emerges from this epic tale.  

I absolutely love it when an underdog movie comes up from no where and takes all of the prizes and surprise the masses.  When I first saw the title of this movie, I didn’t want to watch it.  In fact, I thought it was an Italian Mob movie.  You’re constantly tapping your toes trying to figure out what’s next.  The cinematography was simply *outstanding*.  Somehow, I was at the edge of my seat for the absolute entirety which doesn’t happen nearly enough in movies.  I was captivated and the movie was just pure poetry for me.

What I truly enjoyed about this movie was really the true simplicity of the storyline and how everything flowed together in a ‘flash back’ type scenes.  Flipping back and forth from memories of the childhood through in a chronological fashion with a story ending with the current situation at hand.  This is by no feat of creativity ingenuity as it’s certainly been done before.  However, because of the sub storylines between each of the major plot was interesting enough to keep anyone’s attention, it allowed for neverending eyes glued to the screen and never want to blink flick.  Awesome.

Character development is truly done well.  The casting made you believe each character’s character and personality.  The actors and actresses of different age groups from 5 - 95 are truly talented.  The children in the film, apparently, have been recruited in Indian’s poorer community to play characters in the film.  There should have been awards that were handed to them indeed.  

The movie takes place in India where the a kid, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), from the slums went onto a popular local TV version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire”.  In the show, he comes off as a brilliant savant that was able to answer questions that doctors and lawyers never get past.  Taken into a back room, they suspect that Jamal was cheating and the opening seen starts with a graphic scene where he’s being tortured to attempt to get him to admit to his cheating ways.  Jamal was on his way to winning 20 million rupees!

The scenary in the movie was spectacular.  Colours that light up the screen, flashes of brilliance in directing, Danny Boyle was completely in his element.  The scene moving from current to his memories of flashbacks of when he was a child.  The flashbacks were completely synchronized from when Jamal and his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), grew up, shaping and seeing how each characterize in their own personalities.  Salim gets painted in a light that made him aggressive and therefore playing a thug and antagonist through bits and peices of the movie.  Yet, he’s also protrayed as a good kid trying to look out for the family.  

This love story shows that Jamal looks for the love of his live, Latika (Freida Pinto) from when they were very young, homeless, and trying to survive.  With all the heartache that Jamal goes through, we see his life through a first point of view as he remembers each painful story of his life.  The tragic scenes of how they were captured, released, looking for food and cheating tourists just made this film a genius in the making.

Overall, this movie is a visual wonder.  You see different scenes running, moving, from highs to lows.  From a sensitive overall scene that jumps into a tragic or funny storyline.  The movie had a little of everything for everyone.  Love, laughter, sadness, happiness, life and magic.  At the end of the day, the kids in the movie were no less wonderful in the entire film, the geekiness of Dev Patel and his hidden shyness really shined and everyone in the entire movie should really be applaused for their skill.  I sure hope that the kids in the movie will be seen again on the big screen.  They were, afterall, 50% of the movie.

If that wasn’t enough of a Bollywood movie being taken place in India, the ending scene will sincerely help end it off properly.  Bravo Mr. Boyle!  

Go watch it.  You won’t regret seeing this on the big screen (or the little screen at home).