Who wants to be a slumdog?
// / September 7, 2008
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by Roger Ebert TORONTO, Ont.--Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" hits the
ground and never stops running. After its first press screening early Saturday
morning, it became a leading contender for the all-important Audience Award,
which is the closest thing the Toronto Film Festival has to a top prize. And an
Oscar best picture nomination is a definite possibility.
The movie does something that sounds unlikely. On one hand, it uses a
traditional flashback structure and suspense about a TV quiz show. On the
other, it is a searing story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai who climbs
from rags to riches through brutal early experiences. A petty thief, impostor
and survivor, mired in the most dire poverty, he improvises his way up through
the world and remembers everything he has learned.
His name is Jamel (played as a teenager by Dev Patel). He and his story might
remind you of some of the early adventures of Oliver Twist. He is high-spirited
and defiant in the worst of times, and with a sidekick and friend he briefly
scrapes out a living at the Taj Mahal, which he finds by being thrown off a
train. How? By posing as a guide, stealing visitor's shoes, climbing beneath
the bleachers at an evening concert and slipping away with purses. But there
are other survival tactics not so Dickensian, and his story leads him into the
Mumbai underworld and up against dangerous men.
All of this is told in vivid flashbacks during his appearance as a contestant
on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Yes. Introduced as a
slumdog from the bottom of society, he has the correct answers to question
after question (the flashbacks show why), and becomes a national hero as the
suspense builds. Transfer the premise to a more conventional location, and this
story might seem much more conventional. It's the portrait of India that
transforms it.
The film uses dazzling cinematography, editing, music and headlong momentum to
explode with narrative force, wrapping in a poignant romance at the same time.
For Danny Boyle, it is a personal triumph. If you have seem some of his earlier
films ("Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting," "28 Days Later," the lovable
"Millions") you know he's a natural. Here he combines the suspense of a game
show with the vision and energy of a "City of God" and never stops sprinting.
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