SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Danny Boyle, 2008) ***

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2009)

A curious mix of CITY OF GOD (2002) and QUIZ SHOW (1994), this surprising multi-Oscar winner is a good film to be sure but also somewhat overrated (as was director Boyle's TRAINSPOTTING [1996] after all). The editing is deftly intricate (spanning several years, the story continually jumps back and forth in time) and the exotic score certainly effective; however, Boyle's flashy technique rings false within the context of its underprivileged setting! SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE may have alerted the rest of the world to the dire conditions of life in (the so-called) modern India but, at the same time, it cannot have benefited the country's tourist industry any! The film's trump card is actually the 'impossible romance' at its core: the two young leads are believable and undeniably appealing. The whole "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" angle, then, has a decidedly contrived feel to it: though apparently based on fact, the film was clearly intended as a fable. That said, some of the flashbacks do not really illuminate us as to how the hero knew the respective answer: for instance, does someone need to know who invented the revolver just because he owns one (much less an uneducated person) and would the final all-important question of such a show be one to which the answer could have easily been arrived at by common sense (had it not been a recurring motif)?