Movies: Movie Review: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE The director of 28 DAYS LATER and the writer of THE FULL MONTY collaborate on a fable-like adaptation of a novel about the winner of an Indian game showGrade: B Stars: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Frieda Pinto Writer(s): Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup Director: Danny Boyle Release Date: Nov. 12th, 2008 Rating: R Distributor: Fox Searchlight ________________________________ By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer Published 11/12/2008
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE isn’t the actual name of a game show. Instead, it is one of the insulting labels slapped on our hero, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel as an adult, Tanay Hemant Chheda as a teen, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as a child), who is winning the Indian version of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? As the film opens, Jamal’s seeming virtuosity has caused so much consternation that he’s being tortured at the local police station in an effort to make him confess how he’s been cheating. We surmise that Jamal hasn’t cheated from the outset. The film flashes around from the interrogation, which eventually takes the form of a less unpleasant conversation between Jamal and the police inspector (Irrfan Khan), to Jamal’s session with the game show host (Anil Kapoor) to flashbacks illustrating incidents from Jamal’s life that have made the quiz show answers indelible to him. We see how Jamal and his alternately protective and treacherous older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal as an adult, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as a teen, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as a child) are orphaned during a bout of anti-Muslim violence, survive in the slums, fall in with fellow orphan Latika (Frieda Pinto as an adult, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as a teen, Rubina Ali as a child), spend time with a Fagin-like gangster, escape and then start taking divergent paths in life. Through it all, Jamal never stops loving Latika, who is on a rocky path of her own. 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We don’t really see how the exuberantly determined young Jamal becomes the stoic (albeit equally determined) grown-up taking police abuse; the filmmakers are so focused on showing us their hero’s resolve that they either don’t notice or care that we don’t get an incident showing exactly why the youthful buoyancy absolutely vanishes. We could accept that it’s drained away by hardship and betrayal, except that so many other things are given specific (and sometimes improbable) causes that it seems a notable omission. Likewise, while fables demand a certain level of matter-of-fact acceptance of certain storytelling conventions, it would be nice to see a little more nuanced interaction between Jamal and Latika, both in childhood and adulthood, to make us feel more invested in his devotion and their ultimate fates. On the other hand, director Danny Boyle does a great job of continually giving us a sense of the sheer size and variety of the population Jamal is trying to navigate to a better life. Also, Kapoor’s game show host is such a sleek, self-promoting jerk that we desperately want to see Jamal win, if just to show to make this guy sweat. Patel exudes common sense and firmness of purpose as the adult Jamal and Mittal is very good as his conflicted sibling. Pinto is lovely as Latika and Kapoor steals every scene he is in with virtuoso smarminess. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is enjoyable and diverting, but because the characters are more archetypal than detailed, it’s less emotionally satisfying than might be expected. Fans of Bollywood should stick around for the closing credits, which boast a huge dance number. Movies: Movie Review: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE The director of 28 DAYS LATER and the writer of THE FULL MONTY collaborate on a fable-like adaptation of a novel about the winner of an Indian game showGrade: B Stars: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Frieda Pinto Writer(s): Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup Director: Danny Boyle Release Date: Nov. 12th, 2008 Rating: R Distributor: Fox Searchlight ________________________________ By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer Published 11/12/2008 SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE isn’t the actual name of a game show. Instead, it is one of the insulting labels slapped on our hero, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel as an adult, Tanay Hemant Chheda as a teen, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as a child), who is winning the Indian version of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? As the film opens, Jamal’s seeming virtuosity has caused so much consternation that he’s being tortured at the local police station in an effort to make him confess how he’s been cheating. We surmise that Jamal hasn’t cheated from the outset. The film flashes around from the interrogation, which eventually takes the form of a less unpleasant conversation between Jamal and the police inspector (Irrfan Khan), to Jamal’s session with the game show host (Anil Kapoor) to flashbacks illustrating incidents from Jamal’s life that have made the quiz show answers indelible to him. We see how Jamal and his alternately protective and treacherous older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal as an adult, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as a teen, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as a child) are orphaned during a bout of anti-Muslim violence, survive in the slums, fall in with fellow orphan Latika (Frieda Pinto as an adult, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as a teen, Rubina Ali as a child), spend time with a Fagin-like gangster, escape and then start taking divergent paths in life. Through it all, Jamal never stops loving Latika, who is on a rocky path of her own. As an underdog story, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is agreeable, but screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, in adapting Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A, seems to be making some large jumps in both continuity and character. Without reading the book, one can’t know if this is a result of condensing the source material into a two-hour running time or a problem inherent in the novel, but there are gaps in character and story. We don’t really see how the exuberantly determined young Jamal becomes the stoic (albeit equally determined) grown-up taking police abuse; the filmmakers are so focused on showing us their hero’s resolve that they either don’t notice or care that we don’t get an incident showing exactly why the youthful buoyancy absolutely vanishes. We could accept that it’s drained away by hardship and betrayal, except that so many other things are given specific (and sometimes improbable) causes that it seems a notable omission. Likewise, while fables demand a certain level of matter-of-fact acceptance of certain storytelling conventions, it would be nice to see a little more nuanced interaction between Jamal and Latika, both in childhood and adulthood, to make us feel more invested in his devotion and their ultimate fates. On the other hand, director Danny Boyle does a great job of continually giving us a sense of the sheer size and variety of the population Jamal is trying to navigate to a better life. Also, Kapoor’s game show host is such a sleek, self-promoting jerk that we desperately want to see Jamal win, if just to show to make this guy sweat. Patel exudes common sense and firmness of purpose as the adult Jamal and Mittal is very good as his conflicted sibling. Pinto is lovely as Latika and Kapoor steals every scene he is in with virtuoso smarminess. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is enjoyable and diverting, but because the characters are more archetypal than detailed, it’s less emotionally satisfying than might be expected. Fans of Bollywood should stick around for the closing credits, which boast a huge dance number.
