Film

Notorious genre-hopper Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions, Sunshine) uses the tricks he’s picked up along the way for this sweet bit of uplift. Slumdog Millionaire displays Boyle’s love of a bold camera movement, his gift for suspense, his ability to get good performances out of children, and his general love of a ripping good yarn.

Set in Mumbai, Slumdog also captures the lives of the truly impoverished. Jamal (Patel) is about to free himself from that poverty; he’s one question away from winning on the Indian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, but the show’s staff has turned him over to the cops under the assumption that he is cheating. To convince the lead detective (Khan) of his innocence, Jamal explains how he knew the answer to each question. That’s an excuse for him to tell a life story straight out of Dickens. As a boy, he and his brother are orphaned, join a gang of beggars led by a man far less lovable than Fagin, escape (barely) to work scams at the Taj Mahal, and grow up on different paths. Through it all, Jamal tries to reconnect with his childhood sweetheart. It’s a big, exuberant film that revels in the joy of a good story.