Masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2008)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
**** (out of 4)
The incredible story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who grows up in the slums but gets a chance on India's version of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. The only catch is that he isn't doing it for the money and his answers come from his own life experiences while searching for his one true love (Freida Pinto). I really wasn't sure what to expect walking into this film but it grabs you from the very first shot and not once lets go and in the end this turned out to be one of the most impressive films I've seen in many, many years. Perhaps if I thought a tad bit longer a title would come to my mind but as I'm sitting here writing this I really can't think of another film quite like this one. The movie works brilliantly as a love story. It works brilliantly as pure drama. It works brilliantly as a heart-pounding thriller. This film is so many things that it's really incredible that director Danny Boyle was able to handle all of it and deliver one of the most heartbreaking yet rewarding film in many years. The movie is told in an extremely fast paced and it's visually very stunning. The brilliant editing mixed with the cinematography and visionary music score makes for an amazing assault on our senses but it mixes so well with the love story that you can't help but feel everything that the hero is going through. What I loved most is that Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy could have played it safe and delivered a PG-13 love story but instead they wanted to show the viewer what the slums of India are like. We get a couple extremely violent scenes that are rather shocking and we get to see what poverty is like in this country. The way the children are abused might make some think twice when seeing them on the streets over there. The screenplay captures every note correctly in telling this story and Boyle's wonderful direction really brings it home nicely. Patel and Pinto do a masterful job in their performances as does Madhur Mittal who plays Jamal's older brother. The three of them work so incredibly well together that their performances help sell the story. The three of them are played by two sets of younger actors earlier in the film and these kids also deliver very strong performances. What's really amazing is that it seems the filmmaker's goals were met early on in the film yet they just kept climbing and climbing until they've reached something bigger. I'm still early on in my quest to watch the best reviewed movies of 2008 but I will be shocked if I come across a better film than this one.