Slumdog Millionaire: Review (2009)

Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, 120 minutes, rated R.

“Slumdog Millionaire” proves that Danny Boyle is among the most restless directors working in Hollywood today. He’s tried his hand at so many genres, one has to wonder what’s left for him. A silent film?

Don’t bet against it--or him.

Chief among the genres Boyle has sampled are the excellent 1995 thriller “Shallow Grave,” the breakthrough oddity that was 1996’s “Trainspotting,” a few failures in the 1997 romantic comedy “A Life Less Ordinary” and 2000’s “The Beach,” then onward into his terrific 2003 zombie slasher “28 Days Later” and 2005’s moving childhood fantasy, “Millions.”

Now, keeping with the millions theme, the director comes through with an international drama underscored with suspense, torture, love and betrayal, a good deal of which are fueled with the unstoppable energy of Bollywood pop. It’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” it’s set amid some of India’s poorest locations, and yet here’s the irony--it’s one of last year’s richest movies.

The film follows Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, wonderful), who opens the movie by taking his seat as a contestant on the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Instead of being paired opposite a grinning Meredith Viera, Jamal must face something creepier--Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), a cruel host with a mean mouth who is at a loss at how this poor, uneducated “slumdog” has answered every question correctly.

With only one question left--and 20 million rupees hanging in the balance if Jamal nails it--the show ends, the audience clears, and Jamal is abducted by authorities, who start torturing him in an effort to make him admit that he’s cheating.

Only he isn’t. And so begins this young man’s story, with Boyle showing that Jamal was educated the hard way--not from books, but from life on the streets. To prove to the chief detective (Irfan Khan) that he never cheated, Jamal describes how he knew the answer to each question asked of him. It’s an ingenious tactic that allows Boyle to slide in and out of the past and present, where the horrors of Jamal’s childhood are revealed like a scar on a cheek, and where, if Jamal can convince the detective that he’s telling the truth, he might be released so he can take a shot at that final question.

From Simon Beaufoy’s script, “Slumdog Millionaire” digs into India’s gritty depths, where it juxtaposes squalor, exploitation and corruption with humanity’s fight to overcome it. Elements are predictable (that’s a quibble), but the movie never is slight, in large part due to its superb cast. Woven into the dense plot are Jamal’s tense relationship with his brother, and also his growing love for Latika (Freida Pinto), the beautiful teen he first met as a young orphan--and who proves critical to the film’s ending.

And what an ending. When it hits, those who haven’t experienced Bollywood and are unaware of how great it can be will find themselves transported when Boyle offers a brazen tip of his hat.

Grade: A-



View the trailer here: