I liked it I didn't love it

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2009)

Probable Oscar nominee didn't float my boat. Its a good film but I don't know whether too many people have told me how great it is or is it not that great and people are simply reacting to the exotic nature of the film, either way it didn't blow my skirt up.
This is the story of Jamal who is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees in India's Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Certain this lower class kid must be cheating he's in the police station where some extreme methods are being employed to find out how he's cheating. Insisting that he is not cheating Jamal recounts his life's story with appropriate pauses to explain how he knows the answers.
Far from what I expected, I didn't expect the level of violence, this is a good little film. Its the sort of thing where luck, or is it fate, allows you enough information to get ahead. Its the sort of thing designed to make you feel good.
As I said I'm not in love with the film. I like it but I'm not in love with it. Perhaps its a little too cute at times (The kid in the poop) and it didn't help that the romance vital to much of the later part of the film didn't feel right to me.
As an exercise in film-making its a masterful achievement blending a variety of styles into something uniquely its own. Danny Boyle is quite simply one of the best filmmakers working today one need only look at the last four films he's directed to see the range he has. Its a dizzying, great looking, great sounding film that makes even the squalor of India seem magical. I wish more directors had Boyle's abilities.
That said the film didn't click with me. I respect the people who've fallen in love with the film enough to give the film a second go down the line., but for now Its a good film that I don't think is one of the best of the year.
(For those, like me who didn't realize this was as violent as it it be warned- There are shootings, clubbings, torture, people set on fire, and nastiness to children. Its not a film for kids, though reviews I've seen made it seem so)