Question 1. How was "Slumdog Millionaire" ruined by the last ten minutes ?

Rating: 6/10 (12 January 2011)

ANSWER A. Jamel's final won wasn't destiny, it was pure luck, which was in total contradiction with the message of the film.
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The structure of "Slumdog Millionnaire"'s script was based on a simple premise : Jamal, a slum boy wins in the "Who Wants to be a Millionnaire" game because every question has a connection with something that happened in his life. Original and clever, this was the basis of the film : Jamal's destiny was to win, because his destiny made him know all the answers.

It's never been luck. Even at the 50-50 question, when the TV host gives him the wrong answer in the toilet, he's indirectly guiding Jamal who naturally chose the other option because he learned from his past not to trust anyone. Everything had a connection with his life.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Jamal shouldn't have given the right answer, but the way he did betrayed the spirit of the film. Jamal says "Answer A" and then "A" rhymes with Deus Ex Machina.

* Some would say : "that was the point, he didn't care about winning, he knew Latika would be with him from that day and that's what mattered to him. He had the love of his life, he didn't care for money" Then, let's go to Answer B.
ANSWER B. Because Latika was the most important thing, Jamal shouldn't have won the game.
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He loved Latika, he played the game to be rich enough to provide a good living for the love of his life. BUT Latika didn't care : remember, she came at the rendezvous in the train station. She loved Jamel, rich or poor.

Now, let's say the game was important, because it was the only way so Latika could reach Jamal, as long as she escapes from the house. I accept the idea of Salim (the brother) deciding to free Latika as a redeeming act. Then, all she has to do is to find Jamal. Then Latika sees Jamal on TV, she remembers about the cell-phone, she answers, she declares her love, BUT Jamel gives the wrong answer.

The movie needed a happy ending, but Jamal with Latika was the perfect happy ending. And it would have been a legendary twist ending, everybody expect Jamal to win, but he doesn't, he only wins Latika's heart, THAT'S a beautiful and modern fairy tale.

To give you an example, Jamal having Latika AND the money felt like a forced artificial ending, like Rocky Balboa winning the fight against Apollo. All Rocky wanted to do was to go the distance. All Jamal wanted was Latika.

* Some would say "It was Jamal's destiny to win, the whole point was that he had to go from wags to riches, people wanted an underdog story" Then, let's go to Answer C.
ANSWER C. Latika should have been the one who gave him the right answer.
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Think about it, every protagonist in Jamal's life played a big role in his knowledge of the right answers, Salim for the "Colt", the poor blind kid for "Benjamin Franklyn", his mother for the Hindu question etc. Imagine if Latika knew about the answer, how magical it would have been : the most important question of the game, and he knows the answer thanks to Latika.

Imagine how the climactic scene would have been even more thrilling, she hears the phone ringing on TV, she realizes she left it in the car then we would have been like "Faster, Latika!" What a hell of a climax if we knew she knew the right answer, making Jamal rich and still having the opportunity to say "I love you"

* But the point is that they never knew the answer, how could Latika know?

That's simple, she was in a crowded street, full of thousands of people, she could have heard anyone say "Answer A" : that would have been simple, plausible, and leading to a more brilliant climax.

Instead, she just says "I don't know", and Jamel who doesn't even care still gives the right answer! Anticlimactic, yes, ironic, maybe, but don't start with the whole 'destiny' thing, if it was Jamal's destiny to win, then every single thing that took part in his life would have helped him to know the answer.

And in that last case, it would have been Latika's intervention. Isn't she part of Jamal's destiny after all. Instead of that, Jamal had the money and the girl, and the whole celebration thing.

* Some would say "that's what people wanted, he had the girl and the money, it had to be a happy ending" Then, let's go to Answer D.
ANSWER D. Because of the forced stereotypical Bollywood happy ending.
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That probably explains all the previous criticism. It seemed like Danny Boyle wanted to please the foreign audience, to remind them that they were watching an 'Indian' film. How condescending to support the cliché that any Bollywood film should end with a musical choreography, even for a drama handling very serious subjects.

That's how you start a great film with an incredible screenplay, and ruin it with one of the most forced and badly written endings. Maybe the whole stupid choreography at the end was intended to confirm that the movie wasn't to be taken seriously.

« Slumdog Millionaire » is the perfect example of a great film ruined by the last ten minutes and inspiring in terms of 'story-revisionism'. The movie had all the elements to be considered one of the greatest of the last decade, all it needed was a good ending. And this is my final answer.