Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

[Scott Mendelson]

Slumdog Millionaire
2008
120 minutes
rated R (language, adult situations, violence)

by Scott Mendelson

There has been an ongoing debate for the last several years about the
very concept of knowledge. With the advances of the internet and
billions of people literally having any piece of information at their
fingertips, what is the real benefit of knowledge? Why teach children
facts when they can look them up in five seconds on Wikipedia or
Google? Why devour trivia books (such as Uncle John's Bathroom Reader)
when any random fact is available upon request? While there will
always be such people as myself who take pride in knowing as much as
possible about as much as possible (I'm not a 'know-it-all', I'm a
'want to know-it-all'), what practical purpose remains for storing
facts, dates, names, and events when the answer key to the world is
sitting at your fingertips?

Loveleen Tandan and Danny Boyle's delightful fable Slumdog Millionaire
suggests that our lives can be considered a sum of our knowledge. The
more we do, the more we experience, then the more we know. Hence, the
more we know, the richer our lives have been and can be. The film
concerns a single life, up to the age of eighteen, told against the
backdrop of an event that could transform that life forever.

The plot - Jamil Malik (Skins' Dev Patel) has lived a tough and brutal
life as an impoverished child in Mumbai, India. But now, through luck
and perhaps intent, he sits in the winner's circle of the Indian
version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'. As he awaits the final
question that will award him 20 million rupees, he is arrested and
detained by Mumbai police on suspicion of cheating. Doctors, lawyers,
and scientists have never won as much money on this show, so how could
a poor kid from the slums possibly know so much? With his life
possibly hanging in the balance, Malik tells his interrogator the
story of his life up to that point, with highlighting key events that
will explain how be came to know the answers to the questions thus
far.

That's all you get, and that's all you want going in. The film is a
simple one, and the life of Malik sometimes flirts with cliche. But
the movie succeeds as a sum of its parts, and its slow-building power
becomes intoxicating.  The film looks absolutely gorgeous, with
widescreen vistas of India contrasting with sharp, intrusive closeups
during interrogation scenes. The scenes set on the game show itself
are both electric and claustrophobic, with Boyle doing his best to
approximate the feeling of being on that once legendary show.

The acting is uniformly excellent, but it never stands out never
overpowers the narrative. Each of the leads is played by three
different actors as they age, and each young actor blends seamlessly
with the one following or proceeding. Of the case, only Anil Kapoor
stands out. He has fun playing the game show host, a seemingly jovial
man of shifting motives and complicated feelings about having his
spotlight stolen by this genuinely interesting young man.

And, unlike several other Danny Boyle pictures, the film actually has
a compelling third act and an emotionally involving climax. No
spoilers, but the film does not go sliding off the rails in the manner
of 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and The Beach. Granted, he was loosely
adapting Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A, but I was genuinely fearful that
Boyle would once again drop the third-act ball. No worries, the last
act is, if anything, superior to its somewhat dragging initial first
act set-up.

In the end, Boyle and Tandan have made an enchanting story about the
power of knowledge, knowledge gained from experiences and gained from
life itself. The film sneaks up on the audience, slowly building
emotional investment until the moviegoers are playing along with Malik
and holding their breaths at the end. It is easily one of the more
charming and original movies of this year and is 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. For it's not just what you know,
it's how you came to know it.

Grade: B+