One in a million

Danny Boyle shows a softer, less sci-fi side in his new flick Slumdog Millionaire

By Zipporah Porton
Published: November 11th, 2008 | 10:55pm

A pleasure to watch with suspense, romance, and heroism at every turn, Slumdog Millionaire isn’t exactly what you would expect from Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and recent sci-fi fares such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine. The story manages to bring together the slums of Mumbai with the greed and celebrity of Who Wants to be a Millionaire without skipping a beat.

Slumdog Millionaire follows the story of Jamal (Dev Patel), who is poised to win more money than anyone ever has on India’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire. That is if this call center assistant from the slums can prove he hasn’t cheated to get this far and is given permission to return to the final show.

While justifying his knowledge to a policeman, Jamal also reveals his path from slum to his current position in life. With each game show answer, Jamal tells the story of his difficult past where he and his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), were on their own from young age. In the process, Jamal reveals events that led to him knowing the right answer.

The film cleverly uses Who Wants to be a Millionaire as a way to bring about Jamal’s story and reveal to the audience a part of India that the country would probably prefer outsiders didn’t see. The scenes in the slums juxtaposed with the money-for-nothing culture that exists on the popular show that leads to Jamal’s celebrity creates a luscious dichotomy. As Jamal tries to prove he didn’t cheat, the viewer learns all about his rocky relationship with his brother and his special friendship with Latika (Freida Pinto), a beautiful woman he can never get out of his mind.

Though there are a lot of coincidences in this movie, the story by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) is so captivating that all is forgiven. Sure, Jamal is a lucky guy since every single question he is asked pertains to an event in his past, but this character is a genuinely good person, and I found myself rooting for him from the start. At two hours long, the story never drags. From the beginning to the end of this film, Boyle will have you poised at the end of your seat in anticipation, or cringing at the site of Jamal’s horrific past. Regardless of how you feel at the end, Boyle has created a film that will stay in your mind well after the credits roll.