Slumdog is wildly overrated

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2009)

Slumdog Millionaire presents a refreshingly original concept, but it fails when it plays like a typical action romance. The main problem is that the screenplay follows the same formula that so many other big-budget action romances follow with two major exceptions. One, we have Indian characters, not American (it gives the film a special allure). Secondly, the story is told in non-linear fashion. But the formula is the same.
One of the biggest problems in the writing is that everybody except for the two main characters is a villain. Key characters are one-dimensional and that's far too easy to write. For example, everybody with the exception of three key characters are pure evil and even then, one is mostly evil. It's lazy and a way to spoon-feed the audience. It's easier for audiences to identify some one as wholly good and another as wholly evil. Writing complex characters causes more ambiguity and it might make audiences think!
Secondly, Slumdog suffers from what I'll call "Inverse Deus Ex Machina." Instead of characters always being saved by the bell, these characters are always being harmed by the bell. Just when you think something good will happen, something bad happens to increase drama. This is a problem when it happens at every single opportunity it gets except one.
Another problem is a philosophical one. Jamal searches for his true love, a girl that he barely spent any time with making it hard to legitimize this destined love. Now, this can work by giving the main character a reason to love a girl he barely knew. Maybe she reminds him of innocence or maybe she was the only purely good person he ever knew. But the movie does not justify this distant and unknown love, they simply expect us to believe that the overly passionate Jamal would be so unbelievably attached to a stranger and vice versa.
Boyle also applies some annoying gimmicks to this film. Almost every other shot is canted dutch (camera tilted at an angle). Critics seem to confuse this as art but it's simply aggravating. The Third Man is the only film that can use canted dutch shots nearly as much as Slumdog did, although it still does it less. Also, every time it happens in 3rd Man, there's an obvious reason for it. Here, there's no reason other than to create never-ending chaos, even during the calm scenes.
Also, Boyle doesn't something extremely elementary. He changes the positions and colors of the subtitles, especially throughout the earlier scenes. This is a way of telling the audience, WE KNOW YOUR ATTENTION SPAN IS TOO SHORT TO READ BLACK AND WHITE SUBTITLES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN, SO WE'LL APPLY COLORS AND MAKE THEM MORE VISIBLE BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY WAY THE American AUDIENCE WILL WATCH THIS. Man on Fire and El Cantante also did this, I believe for the same reasons, and it's unnecessary. Trust the audience. They're only dumb if you treat them as such. And I won't even get into the end credits. I'll just say this isn't 40 year old virgin, this movie can't pull that off.
Also, Boyle has a nasty habit of playing popular, modern songs non-diagetically against scenes that take place well before the song was made. I may be nit-picky here, but this too is unnecessary, sloppy film-making. More importantly, Boyle exhibits a petty reliance on music, making most of the movie feel like a really expensive music video.
Slumdog fails to capitalize on the most interesting character in the film. THE SLUMS. There's a brief moment in the film where the camera is sitting on a tri-pod, there isn't any wacky editing, and a serene song plays. We watch Jamal re-enter the slums. Here, the slums are treated with tenderness and a little nostalgia. The film needs more of this.
Ultimately, the great reviews stem from the appreciation of an unusual concept made in a fast-paced, City of God-like environment using incredibly epic scenery of Mumbai slums. Unfortunately, the content, editing and cinematography is treated like a Michael Bay film and the theme (and ending) is one to satisfy an audience of teeny-boppers. Slumdog may very well win best picture this year while a simpler, more thought-provoking and more mature film in The Wrestler isn't even nominated for the award.