Gotta love Danny Boyle, Gotta love Mumbai!

Rating: 8/10 (25 February 2009)

My first ever review on IMDb was a little known film from 2003, directed by Danny Boyle. Now some 230 reviews later I am back to where I started with Danny Boyle again...
That film was Millions about a boy in Scotland I thought it was brilliant: an honest, moving, fantasy, all centered on hope in desperate situations.
And that pretty much is Slumdog Millionaire: a film about hope and a film about romance, eternal love, with a neat plot device of using Celador's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to frame each extraordinary chapter. Borrowing from sources as wide apart as 30s Westerns and the classical Arabic tales, as well as the questions themselves this opens up a vista of wonderful possibilities.
The other star of Slumdog is Mumbai - and this is the breakout film for India - unlike Gandhi which was very Attenborough - this really looks like an Indian production team has worked at this - amazing colours, sounds, and settings - just a shame smellovision isn't ready yet! It is a tale of pessimism and optimism, it is fun, intriguing, and charming - and if course, exciting.
It is deeply romantic, but as with all of Danny Boyle's films, it is not cloying or sentimental: honesty in film is the keystone here.
It's above all entertainment, and entertainment with a conscience.
A clear winner for the Awards and all we can say is please Mr Boyle can we have some more?