Slumdog Millionaire
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Rajendranath Zutshi
8 Karma Points
Customer Reviews
Somewhat convoluted film that is told in and out of time order roughly at five levels, some levels separated by years, others separated by days, others by hours. The story is about two brothers Jamal and Salim, and their friend Latika, who are played by three teams of actors, roughly aged five, 12 and 21. The film starts when Jamal is thrown into police interrogation, suspected of cheating on a 20,000,000 rupee quiz show. No one can understand how a street kid could get so many questions right, but somehow he does. Through flashback, we understand how he does it. And the police, never having encountered someone so truthful, cannot keep him in the cell any longer. And so he goes back to the TV studios to play the final round.
Of course, the question of luck is a bit like the story of Chance the Gardener in "Being There" - he never did anything other than be himself, and was immensely successful at it - but the story of young people who fought their way out of poverty and bad luck to finally make something of their lives, and to win the support of the population in so doing, is simply a tale that is hard to beat. Some moments of unbelievability - where did these kids learn English, anyway? But it's a great film.
I'm not as much shocked by the Slumdog's thin/predictable story line, bad acting and cardboard cut-out characters, as much as I am with the success it did achieve. Good for the filmmakers..., but hey, you don't have to waste your time watching it.
Slumdog Millionaire has been criticized by some reviewers as being unbelievable, but I've always believed in the ability of movies to help people escape for that hour and a half or two hours. The story revolves around an impoverished and uneducated Indian man who is one question away from winning the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. First he is captured by police forces who simply cannot believe that this impoverished man is one question away from winning the ultimate prize. This leads the viewer on a back-tracking whirlwind through the life of this man through his childhood, the formation of the three Musketeers with his childhood friend Salim and his eventual love interest. Jamal and Salim eventual take off, leaving Latika to become an exotic dancer known as Cherry until the two friends retain to rescue their Third Musketeer.
Eventually Salim turns on Jamal to become a hired gunmen for an Indian muscle-man ejecting Jamal from his life and separating him from Latika once again. The style of this movie is a bit bothersome for me because it comes across as an our and half period of flashback ended with a half an hour of present time period action. There had to have been a better way to do it than just stuff that felt like constant flashback. Still I can't complain about the cinematography because they made India look at once bright, beautiful, and hopeful through colors, but yet dangerous through the blacks, whites, and grays of thug life and things lost. At the end, the viewer is confronted with the classic message that there are some things more important than money.
I know many people rate this movie very highly, but all I can say is . . . WHY? Yes, it is well made and, yes, the acting is good, but it was horrible to see the suffering and degradation the characters went through. After I saw it, I felt upset and revolted, and the feeling persisted even into the following day, which gives you an indication of just how depressing this movie is. I would never, ever watch this movie again, nor will I ever recommend it to anyone. In fact, I feel like I need to go take a shower now to wash off all the "yuck" just thinking about it.
It seemed that about mid-year, 2008, the entire world (at least the cinematic world) caught a serious case of Slumdog Fever and soon the critics bodies and big prestigious awards bodies followed suit, handing over a near complete sweep of awards to a small yet bountiful film entitled `Slumdog Millionaire', a project that was probably on no ones radar and yet proved to be on everyone's minds. Looking back on the film (and recently revisiting it) I have to say that I'm still somewhat baffled by the rapturous applause this film received.
I said somewhat.
Personally, I have never seen a film that was so over-thought and yet simultaneous so under-thought as `Slumdog Millionaire'. For a film that prides itself in telling elaborate stories to add layers to a humble `slumdogs' apparent knowledge (a young boy actually wades through fecal mater for an autograph), this film all but seems to stop thinking completely in parts where it truly matters (like wrapping up a sloppy ending with a rather unlikely love story). The film had a nice concept, but the script is poorly realized and comes off unnecessary and actually quite choppy in the end.
Not for a lack of trying though.
There are many elements in play here, but the film doesn't know how to tie them all together cohesively. It is almost like the `gameshow' aspect of the film was an afterthought, something used to connect the dots when instead it actually serves as a distraction. Yes, I know that this is adapted from a novel; I'm just stating how the tone of the film came across to me, especially in the end, as the film is tying up lose ends.
I kind of have to applaud Danny Boyle here, and so I'll stop my critique to offer a slice of appreciation for the director behind this uneven offering. Boyle is a director that I really admire and respect. I have seen a number of his films, and what I love so much about him is that he is a director who will try anything and will adapt to any subject. He is hard to pigeonhole because his vision is not tied down to one specific theme. He has a masterful way of creating imagery that is honest and raw without losing a slice of humor that sets the tone of his films apart. As a directorial effort, I can see a lot of thought in `Slumdog Millionaire'. I don't think that his efforts were entirely successful (obviously) but I can see flourishes of greatness here. I'm so elated that he has an Oscar, but I'm saddened at the same time because it came for (arguably) his weakest work.
Where was Oscar in '03, when he delivered the brilliant '28 Days Later'? Where were they in '05 when he stunned with his touching yet original `Millions'? What about his shocking sophomore film in '96, `Trainspotting'?
Alas...
`Slumdog Millionaire' follows young Jamal as he nears the home stretch of India's version of `Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. The film begins with an interrogation where he is being accused of cheating. The film then jumps back and forth between his moments on the show, his interrogation and his childhood as he explains to the cops how he knows all the answers. At times the films explanation of things can be pretty smart, other times they are fairly lazy. That is what I mean by uneven; over-thought and under-thought. The ending itself is shamefully under-thought. The entire `Jamal/Latika' love story is seriously under-thought. The character development feels like an afterthought. The development of Salim alone is disgusting. I have never really encountered a more vile character in recent cinema, and yet for some reason I'm not supposed to feel this way. The film offers no real development to persuade me in the desired direction. In fact, I can't decide if my smile at the films end had to do with what happened on the gameshow or in the bathtub.
The acting was decent, but nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to write home about. Dev Patel was bland beyond words, and Freida Pinto was barely used (but effective). The real standout here was Anil Kapoor, who evoked more emotional commitment than any actor in the film. The young actors were well used, especially Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who played young Jamal.
I won't lie; I enjoyed this film, I was just disappointed. For a film with such promise, `Slumdog Millionaire' easily finds itself suffering from generic clichés that haunt many films. I expected more from Boyle. I expected a film with this much praise to rise above those stereotypes and formulate something fresh and original. The characters feel like skeletal variations (as in `lacking detail') of many other characters from many other movies. In then end, I was smiling but when the confetti cleared I was left pondering just how much better this movie really could have been.
And is it just me or was the ending credits nosedive into music video edited `You Got Served' territory totally fun yet tremendously cheap feeling?
Of course, the question of luck is a bit like the story of Chance the Gardener in "Being There" - he never did anything other than be himself, and was immensely successful at it - but the story of young people who fought their way out of poverty and bad luck to finally make something of their lives, and to win the support of the population in so doing, is simply a tale that is hard to beat. Some moments of unbelievability - where did these kids learn English, anyway? But it's a great film.
I'm not as much shocked by the Slumdog's thin/predictable story line, bad acting and cardboard cut-out characters, as much as I am with the success it did achieve. Good for the filmmakers..., but hey, you don't have to waste your time watching it.
Slumdog Millionaire has been criticized by some reviewers as being unbelievable, but I've always believed in the ability of movies to help people escape for that hour and a half or two hours. The story revolves around an impoverished and uneducated Indian man who is one question away from winning the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. First he is captured by police forces who simply cannot believe that this impoverished man is one question away from winning the ultimate prize. This leads the viewer on a back-tracking whirlwind through the life of this man through his childhood, the formation of the three Musketeers with his childhood friend Salim and his eventual love interest. Jamal and Salim eventual take off, leaving Latika to become an exotic dancer known as Cherry until the two friends retain to rescue their Third Musketeer.
Eventually Salim turns on Jamal to become a hired gunmen for an Indian muscle-man ejecting Jamal from his life and separating him from Latika once again. The style of this movie is a bit bothersome for me because it comes across as an our and half period of flashback ended with a half an hour of present time period action. There had to have been a better way to do it than just stuff that felt like constant flashback. Still I can't complain about the cinematography because they made India look at once bright, beautiful, and hopeful through colors, but yet dangerous through the blacks, whites, and grays of thug life and things lost. At the end, the viewer is confronted with the classic message that there are some things more important than money.
I know many people rate this movie very highly, but all I can say is . . . WHY? Yes, it is well made and, yes, the acting is good, but it was horrible to see the suffering and degradation the characters went through. After I saw it, I felt upset and revolted, and the feeling persisted even into the following day, which gives you an indication of just how depressing this movie is. I would never, ever watch this movie again, nor will I ever recommend it to anyone. In fact, I feel like I need to go take a shower now to wash off all the "yuck" just thinking about it.
It seemed that about mid-year, 2008, the entire world (at least the cinematic world) caught a serious case of Slumdog Fever and soon the critics bodies and big prestigious awards bodies followed suit, handing over a near complete sweep of awards to a small yet bountiful film entitled `Slumdog Millionaire', a project that was probably on no ones radar and yet proved to be on everyone's minds. Looking back on the film (and recently revisiting it) I have to say that I'm still somewhat baffled by the rapturous applause this film received.
I said somewhat.
Personally, I have never seen a film that was so over-thought and yet simultaneous so under-thought as `Slumdog Millionaire'. For a film that prides itself in telling elaborate stories to add layers to a humble `slumdogs' apparent knowledge (a young boy actually wades through fecal mater for an autograph), this film all but seems to stop thinking completely in parts where it truly matters (like wrapping up a sloppy ending with a rather unlikely love story). The film had a nice concept, but the script is poorly realized and comes off unnecessary and actually quite choppy in the end.
Not for a lack of trying though.
There are many elements in play here, but the film doesn't know how to tie them all together cohesively. It is almost like the `gameshow' aspect of the film was an afterthought, something used to connect the dots when instead it actually serves as a distraction. Yes, I know that this is adapted from a novel; I'm just stating how the tone of the film came across to me, especially in the end, as the film is tying up lose ends.
I kind of have to applaud Danny Boyle here, and so I'll stop my critique to offer a slice of appreciation for the director behind this uneven offering. Boyle is a director that I really admire and respect. I have seen a number of his films, and what I love so much about him is that he is a director who will try anything and will adapt to any subject. He is hard to pigeonhole because his vision is not tied down to one specific theme. He has a masterful way of creating imagery that is honest and raw without losing a slice of humor that sets the tone of his films apart. As a directorial effort, I can see a lot of thought in `Slumdog Millionaire'. I don't think that his efforts were entirely successful (obviously) but I can see flourishes of greatness here. I'm so elated that he has an Oscar, but I'm saddened at the same time because it came for (arguably) his weakest work.
Where was Oscar in '03, when he delivered the brilliant '28 Days Later'? Where were they in '05 when he stunned with his touching yet original `Millions'? What about his shocking sophomore film in '96, `Trainspotting'?
Alas...
`Slumdog Millionaire' follows young Jamal as he nears the home stretch of India's version of `Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. The film begins with an interrogation where he is being accused of cheating. The film then jumps back and forth between his moments on the show, his interrogation and his childhood as he explains to the cops how he knows all the answers. At times the films explanation of things can be pretty smart, other times they are fairly lazy. That is what I mean by uneven; over-thought and under-thought. The ending itself is shamefully under-thought. The entire `Jamal/Latika' love story is seriously under-thought. The character development feels like an afterthought. The development of Salim alone is disgusting. I have never really encountered a more vile character in recent cinema, and yet for some reason I'm not supposed to feel this way. The film offers no real development to persuade me in the desired direction. In fact, I can't decide if my smile at the films end had to do with what happened on the gameshow or in the bathtub.
The acting was decent, but nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to write home about. Dev Patel was bland beyond words, and Freida Pinto was barely used (but effective). The real standout here was Anil Kapoor, who evoked more emotional commitment than any actor in the film. The young actors were well used, especially Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who played young Jamal.
I won't lie; I enjoyed this film, I was just disappointed. For a film with such promise, `Slumdog Millionaire' easily finds itself suffering from generic clichés that haunt many films. I expected more from Boyle. I expected a film with this much praise to rise above those stereotypes and formulate something fresh and original. The characters feel like skeletal variations (as in `lacking detail') of many other characters from many other movies. In then end, I was smiling but when the confetti cleared I was left pondering just how much better this movie really could have been.
And is it just me or was the ending credits nosedive into music video edited `You Got Served' territory totally fun yet tremendously cheap feeling?