"Slumdog Millionaire"
Awoke at what amounted to 5am my time today to race to the theatre to check out
Danny Boyle's latest, "Slumdog Millionaire." Had to sit in the front row and
was dropping from exhaustion. I said to myself, "This one is going to have to
be good to hold my attention today."
And how.
I can't remember the last time I saw film so original, so risky, so beautifully
made that it felt like I was discovering movies for the first time again.
Boyle is a director who refuses to be pigeonholed. Since he debuted with the
comedy/thriller "Shallow Grave," he's tackled gritty drama ("Trainspotting"),
horror ("28 Days Later"), sci-fi ("Sunshine"), screwball comedy ("A Life Less
Ordinary"), and even a children's movie ("Millions".) But nothing could have
prepared even his most ardent fans for "Slumdog Millionaire."
I don't want to give too much away, except to say that the film centers on an
Indian youth named Jamal whose life is marred by heartbreaking obstacles. His
tale unfolds as he answers questions on the hit game show "Who Wants to Be A
Millionaire?"--and we discover how he learned the answers to each question
often through tragedy. The film has some tough scenes...starting your morning
with torture and child abuse isn't an easy sell. But it is also a triumphant
story of love and the human spirit. It's hard to believe that Warner Brothers
let this one go, but it's in the right hands at Fox Searchlight, who know how
to get smart crowd-pleasers seen (see: "Juno," "Little Miss Sunshine,"
"Sideways".)
The film is already garnering major Oscar buzz. But perhaps the biggest praise
I can give it is to say that even today's packed audience of jaded press and
industry people gave it a huge round of applause--almost unheard of in
non-public screenings. The majority of the packed house (in the 580-seat
Varsity Theatre) even stayed through the credits, applauding again at the end.
Afterwards, I stumbled to the restrooom and saw I wasn't the only one still
trying to catch my breath. One critic rhapsodized: "20 million thumbs up!"
while most of us were simply speechless...the highest praise of all.
http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2008/09/slumdog-million.html
