The big winner at the 2009 Academy Awards (eight Oscars in total, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) is Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, Sunshine) Slumdog Millionaire.
Jamal Malik (Patel), born into dire poverty, is an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai. The nation is watching as Jamal climbs that little ladder of cash on India's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionare?' And climb he does, eventually one question away from winning the jackpot: 20 million rupees. But then the show breaks for the night, and police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much?
The police spend the night probing Jamal's past, recounting his life in the slums where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost.
I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
Within moments of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire beginning, we find ourselves racing through the crowded slums of Mumbai, bombarded with colour and sound, grabbing our armrests as this cinematic super-pill hits our bloodstream. Rarely has a film felt so alive. Boyle intersperses the pulsating energy with flickery slo-mo, hits it with a blistering M.I.A. soundtrack, and even gives the subtitles a personality.
Kind of frustrating, then, that the second half turns into a rather conventional, predictable and plodding love story - one where the characters say “I’m in love” a lot but you never actually believe it. This very contemporary (and perhaps culturally significant) merging of British independence with Bollywood melodrama works best during the flashback scenes to the characters’ childhoods. The cheeky little street urchins are far more interesting than their teenage incarnations. Dev Patel (from TV’s Skins), as the older Jamal, seems a bit too earnest and subdued considering his character's tumultuous upbringing.
But yes, I got swept up at the end. As will everyone. There’s no denying the solid crowd pleaser structure behind this. And good on director Danny Boyle for varying his style once again. By filming 75% of the movie on small digital cameras, some of them prototypes, and taking a skeleton crew deep into the slums, he’s created a vibrant, pungent, scrappy little underdog tale.
By Andrew Hedley, Flicks.co.nz
It's easy to be cynical and see this as yet another holiday in someone else's misery, but Danny Boyle rarely disappoints and this delivers on every level - from acting, cinematography and a script that veers just the right side of feel-good-schmaltz. Boyle is the Scottish Alan Parker - attempting something different with every movie and unafraid to dabble in every genre. From TRAINSPOTTING to 28 DAYS LATER, SUNSHINE to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, he never fails to deliver thoughtful, entertaining and well-crafted cinema. Forget the hype, leave your cynicism at the cinema door and revel in a tale that delivers poignancy, heart, laughs and suspense.
3 words: Beautiful, Powerful, Inspiring
When I finished watching the movie, I just said "WOW"!!!
O.M.G. I am so thankful I don't live their life which if course is real!!! What a movie. Thank you to all who made this movie. I wish I had a magic wand to pass over that terrible terrible evil place where people are commodities like fish in a market. It was a brilliant movie with a great hollywood story drenched with real life.
This movie was great. i enjoyed every minute of it
When I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.
Danny Boyle's finest since "Trainspotting." In fact, it's the best British/Indian gameshow-based romance of the millennium.
Absolutely perfect family entertainment for anyone over the age of ten. It is a celebration of not just the usual triumph of the human spirit, but a celebration of the human experience.
What's perhaps most fascinating about the film is Boyle's relentless focus on the realities of present-day India as a vehicle for his spectacle and laughs.
A Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 5th Feb 2009.
Release date: February 5th 2009.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
