Top Movie of the Year by Andrew Malekoff

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2009)

This is the best movie of the year. And, there were a number of movies that I really loved this year. Slumdog was a clear and unambiguous cut above everything else in what I consider to be a good year for movies. How do I determine that it was a good year? I saw more movies that I loved or really liked than in a long time.
At first I was put off by the pacing that I thought was a bit slow with the movie shifting from present to past. But patience paid off as I gradually got in sync with the pacing and structure of the film. And, it was a big payoff that provided me with an intimate view of an orphaned child's harrowing journey to meet his destiny. The nine actors that played the three key characters during childhood, preadolescence and young adulthood were excellent and believable. The were perfectly cast and played their parts wonderfully.
Interestingly, when I saw the trailer weeks before, I thought that Slumdog was an Indian comedy about a poor kid who wins the game show I Want to Be a Millionaire. I immediately had an association to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And, although I loved that movie, Slumdog is a sprawling epic compared to the hilarious sit-com-Greek-Wedding. Slumdog is much more than I expected. A young man, played flawlessly by Dev Patel, is trying his hand at the Indian version of the game show I Want to be a Millionaire. His motives are fuzzy at first. He is not a typical contestant. We learn that it was his destiny that brought him to compete.
We discover how he came to know the answers to the questions (did he cheat?, is he a genius? or, did fate have a hand in his knowledge?). We learn about how close bonds and loyalty among three childhood friends are stretched to painful extremes over time despite dramatically different means that each must use to adapt to the cruel circumstances that they must overcome to survive. Slumdog is a hopeful movie, that underscores the value of resilience, and highlights the many faces and means of loyalty, against the overwhelming odds of poverty and evil; this movie deserves to be honored for its achievement.