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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Director: Danny Boyle

Time Out rating

Average user rating

193 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is a film so upbeat and colourful that, by the time you’re relaying its infectious air of optimism to friends, you could forget that it features orphans, slaughter, organised crime, poverty, enslavement and police brutality in its crowd-pleasing repertoire of suffering and renewal. Hell, it even ends with a get-up-and-dance Bollywood number on the platform of Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus.Shot entirely in India and largely on location, the fabric of the film is winningly realistic. But the story is pure fantasy inspired partly by co-producer Celador’s desire to enshrine its winning creation, the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ in a movie.

Still, Boyle succeeds in leaving these creepy beginnings behind to create a film that’s full of warmth and humanity and forever looks on the bright side of tragedy. The script is a simple conceit: writer Simon Beaufoy (‘The Full Monty’) has ripped up Vikas Swarup’s novel ‘Q&A’ and turned it into a rags-to-riches yarn about Jamal (Dev Patel), a young, slum-born adult in Mumbai who gives such a cracking performance on ‘…Millionaire’, that he’s only one question shy of the 20-million-rupee jackpot. Such unlikely success inspires envy on the part of the show’s creepy host (Anil Kapoor), who invites the police to arrest, question and torture him. This interrogation offers flashbacks of episodes in Jamal’s life that reveal the extraordinary sources of his knowledge and lend Boyle the handy framework of a child becoming an adult against all the odds in an India that’s changing by the hour but still dangerous for any kid on the loose.

Of all Boyle’s mixed work, from the promise of ‘Shallow Grave’ to the embarrassment of ‘Millions’ and the recent experiment of ‘Sunshine’, his new film probably best resembles ‘Trainspotting’: where in that film he found energy, humour and bonhomie in the stupor of heroin addiction, here he takes the impoverished life of a young Indian and spins it into an escapist fairytale steeped in the sights and sounds of the new India. By the time Jamal gets his girl – ultimately and simplistically it’s a romance – and everyone’s tapping their feet, you’ll have forgotten that one of his young friends was blinded and another sold into prostitution. You may also forgive some of the plot’s wilder turns and increasingly erratic jumps in time.
Boyle flirts with realism but never fully buys into it.

He’s too concerned with keeping the mood light and the pace furious. He’s a flashy filmmaker at times, but the real saving grace of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is how Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle go to extreme and pleasing lengths to soak up the colours, people and places of India. The film’s messages – that hard-earned street knowledge can be as valuable as traditional education and, while hardly original, that later success can overcome earlier hardship – are attractive if you’re willing to bite your tongue at the air of positivity. With so much good humour about you can even forgive the film’s bizarre slip from one language to another as young Indian actors give way to a warm, English-language performance from Britain’s Patel, who’s just one of a cast of actors who are as likeable and compelling as the film itself.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2009-01-06 10:30:16

Time Out London Issue 2003, 8 - 14 Jan, 2009

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User reviews of this film

George said...

Posted on Mar 31 2009 14:28 Over-hyped dross. The children were wonderful, but the adult actors, in particular the two leads, were shocking. They were about as authentic as a Chicken Tikka Massala. Once again Danny Boyle turns a decent and thoughtful novel into an easy to digest fast-food flick for Hollywood to devour.

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vvvvvvvvvic said...

Posted on Mar 30 2009 17:11 i thought the film was great to watch

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sam said...

Posted on Mar 27 2009 13:44 What a great film; fantastic music and you must sit through the credits. Great film, but hit me later that people actually live that way in this time and age.

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lisaaa said...

Posted on Mar 27 2009 09:39 loved ittt :)

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Sam said...

Posted on Mar 26 2009 16:20 Poverty porn.

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ayse said...

Posted on Mar 25 2009 11:18 went to see this last night and really enjoyed it.I loved the fast paced action of it all which is typical of Danny Boyle.The film making style was quite similar to that of 28 days later(another fantastic film of his may I say!) bollywood song at the end surprisingly worked and was a lighthearted end to a thought provoking and quite dark film.Well done to Dev Patel (the boy from 'skins') who portrayed the character of 'Jamal' really well.Well worth a watch!

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amna said...

Posted on Mar 23 2009 20:16 Brilliant . no wonder this won!

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Osama said...

Posted on Mar 20 2009 19:07 very intelligent film . i believe it deserves every one of those Oscars. Definitely in my collection once its out on DVD

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kat said...

Posted on Mar 20 2009 14:35 Very Over-Hyped...Good to watch once, but not one for the DVD collection.

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jessica said...

Posted on Mar 18 2009 11:41 it was fantastic i realy enjoyed it i give it a brilliant 10 out of 10!

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laura said...

Posted on Mar 17 2009 11:19 the begining was boring, but i didnt quite get to the end because i fell asleep.

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Enamul Ali said...

Posted on Mar 17 2009 09:39 THIS IS A SICK FILM
ONE OF THE BEST FILMS IVE EVER SEEN
IT IS AMAZING

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Enamul Ali said...

Posted on Mar 17 2009 09:39 THIS IS A SICK FILM
ONE OF THE BEST FILMS IVE EVER SEEN
IT IS AMAZING

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GP said...

Posted on Mar 16 2009 18:35 Brilliant, really full of colour. I first heard the story on radio, and it's a great concept, some bits are lost on screen, but they are more than made up for by other areas that are much stronger, a film that both moves and makes you smile, showing the best and worst of humanity, but leaves you feeling upbeat. Fun and light, without making light of some of the serious issues it raises, I loved it!

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Tina said...

Posted on Mar 15 2009 22:45 Fantastic! If you want to be told a story in an way that lets you know all you need to without being offensive and riddiculous. A glimpse into another world for anyone with an interest beyond their own front door.

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