Slumdog Millionaire

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2009)

Slumdog Millionaire is based upon the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. The film takes place in India and is centered around a young man named Jamal Malik who has just made it onto the Indian version of the popular television game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. As the show goes along we are told in flashback scenes of Jamal growing up in the slums of India and eventually falling in love with a girl named Latika. Jamal's past experiences whether they were good, or bad, have helped shape his life and provide the answers to many of the questions in the television game show that he is now on. Jamal has had a lot of difficult times in his life, but through personal growth and determination he wants to take the top prize and get in touch with Latika who he has not seen for years. Early last fall I remember reading on several different movie websites that Slumdog was definitely going to be nominated for several Oscars and become a huge crowd pleasing hit. Back at that time I knew very little about the film, but those early predictions were right as the film is now nominated for ten Oscars, has won tons of other awards and is on many critics' top ten lists as one of the best films of last year. I wanted to see the film quite badly, so I repeatedly e-mailed my local theatre to see if they would get the film. They replied back with an article from The New York Times entitled Films Reach Theaters a Drib Here, Drab There by Michael Cieply. The theatre closest to my home did not get Slumdog, but another one not so far away did and that is where I saw it. Overall, I quite liked it. I would not go as far as saying it is one of my favourite films of the year, or the best of the nominated films, but I did like it. The script having been based on a novel is very original and I liked how we saw Jamal grow up in a very harsh and disturbing way, but to grow out of it and become what could be a huge star. The film shows the greed, corruption and danger he has to go through along the way and I found it all quite interesting and it almost played out like a modern day fable with a good lead character, many villains and untrustworthy people along the way as well as a big prize at stake. Not too mention the love story aspect of the script as well. All of this worked for me and did a fairly good job of keeping my interest and involving me with the characters and the story. Visually this film was quite spectacular as well. It had a gritty tone in some scenes and is bright and illuminated in others. The cinematography, visuals and fast paced editing gave the film a certain style and I for one really liked it and found it appropriate to the story and overall movie. A lot of the actors in the film did quite a good job and I think the location shooting in India shooting the scenes showing Jamal's upbringing was quite well done and needs to be acknowledged as well. Sometimes, I felt Slumdog had a little more style than it did an involving story, but there were still times where I was quite fascinated by what was going on in front of me and there was so much to admire here that I found it hard not to give this film a favourable review. While not my favourite film of the year I still found lots to like about Slumdog Millionaire and for the more curious of filmgoers it is definitely worth seeing once, or perhaps twice to truly appreciate it.