Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, winner of the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival, is poised to be the feel good movie of the season. Based on the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, Simon Beaufoy (the feel-good writer of the The Full Monty) crafted the uplifting story of Jamal (Dev Patel), a scrappy orphaned kid from the slums of Mumbai who not only wins 20 million rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but also gets the gorgeous girl. Ugh.
For the record, I'm not against feeling good, but I ask more from a movie than a happy ending. I want to believe my happy ending; it needs to be credible. I also want to have some doubt, if only for a second, that the main character -- in this case, Jamal, that adorable, perfect hero -- might not get the happy ending he so richly deserves. A little suspense, please. In addition, I require that the machinations of the film don't creak and groan, drawing undue attention to the film's structure. Yes, I am picky that way.
When
Slumdog Millionaire opens, Jamal is being tortured by the local police -- a stress position, a little electric shock, but no water boarding. (As the film progresses, you'll see how kind and compassionate the police can be.) What they want to know: how could this uneducated boy from the slums possibly have known the answers to all the difficult game show questions? He must have been cheating.
In a series of flashbacks, Slumdog Millionaire returns to each question and an accompanying memory that reveals a pivotal moment in Jamal's tumultuous life: how his mother was violently murdered before his eyes; how he met Latika (Freida Pinto), the orphan girl who will grow up to be the love of his life. Each memory also conveniently provides an answer to a question in the game show. It's a conceit that grows horribly stale.
I wish Danny Boyle had the nerve to trust his audience to take a genuine dose of feel bad with his feel good. The children in Slumdog Millionaire are certainly adorable; many of the flashbacks have their charm. It's fine -- exciting even -- for Jamal to win the money; it's fine for him to get the girl. But what our hero doesn't realize -- and what the movie doesn't show -- is that the girl of his dreams no longer exists. According to Beaufoy's script, the lovely Latika had become the prized possession of a Mumbai gangster, but the movie never deals with the rape this almost certainly entailed.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto
Directed by: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Produced by: Paul Smith (XVI), Tessa Ross, Francois Ivernel
Running Time: 2 hrs.
Release Date: November 12th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some violence, disturbing images and language.
Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures
