The Right Answer

Rating: 8/10 (4 September 2017)

Danny Boyle is known as one of the most unique directors working today, whether it be from his films Concepts or the direction he brings to them his directorial efforts can always be described as different and Slumdog Millionaire thrives as part of his filmography and film I truly appreciate, enjoy and think about.
Boyle was the absolute perfect director for this project this has to be one of the most strangely directed movies I've ever seen and that is by no means a bad thing, it creates this flow in the film that ensures that the cuts between the different time periods are never jarring. He uses a lot of Dutch angles and bloated colour pallets that help to give this film its very distinctive tone, which is absolutely perfect, it's quite a light hearted film that has a lot of fun aspects and lightheartedness to it but never shies away from the horrors of the characters situations and never glamorises poverty.
The character of Jamal Malik is so well written, he such a great well rounded character, which is even more impressive given the fact that his whole arc doesn't play out in a linear structure, when you see his character in present day and in his childhood you absolutely believe how he got to be the way he is in present day, the film portrays him as a sympathetic character because you see so clearly all the hardships he has been through but at the same time is also a very entertaining character, mainly in the flashback storyline.
As I said the pacing of this film is perfect, it's fairly fast and very energetic and it keeps this pace for most of the run time and because the film is so well constructed the cuts between the different stories always as a natural flow to them and they play of each other very well. It keep you engaged and intrigued the whole time all from trivia questions.
The location is a very prominent character in this movie, it's always used to its full advantage. When your in the slums of India you fully feel the poverty and desperation of the situation and it irritates me on every level when critics claim that this film glorifies situations like this. The game show itself was also used very well, it creates a lot of tension just at the thought of him getting the questions right or wrong but when the narrative unfolds the tension increases as you begin to realise the full reasoning behind Malik being in that situation in the first place.
I have but one big issue with this movie and it is the central love story, my biggest issue being that it just came across as very clichÃ©, in a film that has such a unique structure and directorial style it's disappointing to say that, it never really grabbed me and I would have been more than happy for the film to have simply focused around Jamal and his brother entirely.
I truly believe that this is a film that anyone can connect too, it's go such a great central character, distinctive style, sense of location and a great heart that will make this movie enjoyable for just about anybody, while I wasn't a big fan of the love story it didn't take me out of this truly fantastic film that I think I can get more out of the more I watch it.
8.7/10: A- (Fantastic)