As if we required more proof that the Oscars are nothing to go by when trying to find out about quality

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2010)

It's not a coincidence that I didn't watch this when it was playing in theaters. Honestly, the notion never even crossed my mind. I found myself wondering why people whose opinion I respect were going to see it. Since then, I saw the high rating, and recently, someone that I know to have impeccable taste in movies(with the odd exception) suggested it and lent it to me. I haven't read the book, but I understand it's quite different from this. Part of what sold me on this was also Danny Boyle, as I've loved everything else I've seen by him. He brings his stunning visuals, impeccable energy as well as his ability to deliver gripping cinema, with very different plots. Wait... there's... something's missing. And I think I know what it is; the psychological/disturbing approach(let's face it, The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine are thrillers to which the two aforementioned adjectives apply perfectly, and whilst it is a drama, the same can be said of Trainspotting). This is the most sentimental flick I've experienced that I would, with a straight face, call intense, brutal and unsettling. I wonder if that sounds as jarring as it is. Another big issue is that no one, least of all the leads, has *any* charisma(with that said, the acting tends to be great). Who are we supposed to care about? I suppose the Jamal dude, by default, on account of everyone else mistreating him(for crying out loud, 8 Mile wasn't *this* excessive in that regard). That's meant to awaken our sympathy for him, I would wager. I can't claim that it did for me. After two hours of film, covering rather a lot of his young life, I couldn't tell you any personal traits about him. "He was poor, he fell for a girl and stuck with that(no matter what), and he got a chance to get out of the poverty." Do me a favor. Copy and paste the sentence in quotes to an empty document, share it with a friend of yours, and ask if that seems familiar(not revealing that it's about this picture). If they say no, ask them how they've managed to not catch a single one of those stories before. No, it doesn't need to be original; you have to draw inspiration from somewhere. Just do... well, anything with it. All this does is put it to excellent-looking images, not bothering to give us a reason to care. Yes, it's "grand"; so? It's fiction. Nothing's stopping it. Many characters are one-note. I read that they made the subtitles exciting, though that evidently isn't true of the version released here in Denmark. The DVD comes with a music video, and the documentary Slumdog Dreams, that I will review on its own page here on the site. I recommend this to fans of schlock or features that have an incredible appearance. 7/10