"It's our destiny" , "Kiss me"

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2009)

"Slumdog Millionaire" may not be the film you'd expect from someone like Danny Boyle and, although it has some elements that could refuse this statement, it's certainly the riskiest work he's completed, and maybe his best. About this last thing I'm not entirely sure, but if this is the movie that gets him an Academy Award, it's precisely because of not doing the same thing he'd been doing until now.
That's right, against all odd, Boyle's little film about a story bigger than life is a classic tale that you'll find yourself defining with many important words: love, poverty, betrayal, friendship, brotherhood, familyDestiny. And the trick my friends is that, among all these beautiful but unlucky people, in this enormous city where the British director took his camera, everything seems perfect; but the viewer who knows Boyle's pessimism can never know for how long it will last. Is it really possible for a guy from the slums to become a millionaire? Can he also get the girl of his dreams? "The most beautiful woman in the whole world", that's how Jamal (Dev Patel) speaks about Latika (Freida Pinto), the girl he met when he was living on the streets of Mumbai with his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal); the girl he gave shelter to when he saw her crying under the rain. In the most unusual of circumstances, Jamal will tell a police inspector everything about this girl who he never forgot, his brother and their suffered experience through life. "I don't know where she is now", will be the last thing the inspector will hear from him.
The movie reveals a lifetime to the viewer's eyes. There's never a clear indication of the moment being showed in this lifetime, but the edition (Chris Dickens) and cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle, finally recognized) present the structure of the plot and we never get lost. The score by A.R. Rahman, although mostly made of songs and not too showy, sets the mood for every new exotic and captivating location the picture presents by the minute.
Three different actors (most of them children and unprofessional) play the main roles in their different ages, but Patel and Pinto stand out because the movie demands it so. The love Jamal has for Latika is what keeps him and "Slumdog Millionaire" alive, as he imagines her everywhere and remembers her face constantly.
If the movie has a problem it's this one. The constant remembering and repetition of images is an unnecessary reminder of things and a factor of distraction for the viewer in some of the film's most moving scenes. Because, yes, "Slumdog Millionaire" is moving on its own terms; because in the end it chooses the light and it has its heart in the right place.
Maybe you could think there's manipulation involved, but you're wrong; the manipulation occurs inside the story and its structure (and we can't even blame it so much for that because it looks like it really needed it), but there's nothing being forced towards the viewer. Patel's performance makes the love Jamal feels for Latika so sincere and believable that we don't doubt for a second when he tells her he loves her, that it's their destiny to be together, that he will always find her.
And yes, "Slumdog Millionaire" may not be a true Oscar deserver or a great film, but it is, for the viewer, definitely a well done fairy tale that makes you root for its heroes no matter what; for the critic, a little film that silently and with time wins it heart (of course that works for the viewers too), kind of like "Juno"; and for institutions like the Academy the picture that, in this time and age, apparently has the virtues to take home the biggest prize they deliver.
"Kiss me", says Latika to Jamal.