25: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (OSCAR SERIES)

Eye on which Oscar?

Achievement in directing - Danny Boyle

Best motion picture of the year

Where?

Haymarket, 6pm (probably the worst cinema I've been to out of the Cineworld chain; the screen wasn't centered, there was a huge wide gap in the seating so that you couldn't sit anywhere near the middle, and there was a slope in the floor and seats, which after two hours, gave me a numb ass).

Comments?

Slumdog Millionaire is quite a clever movie; it's also funny, moving and charming. It is also the hot tip for Best Movie, the "slumdog" of the nominated movies beating all odds to win the major prize, not unlike the movie's main character, Jamal Malik, who gets to within one question of the million pounds (20 million rupees). However, it is doubtful that Danny Boyle's movie will be pulled at the last minute for cheating, as what happens in Slumdog Millionaire.

The structure of the film, on the face of it, is quite ingenious. Jamal is sitting in the hot seat on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the Indian version. Across from him is the host Prem Kumar (brilliantly played by Anil Kapoor), who encourages Jamal and digs at him throughout. Why wouldn't he? Jamal is a slumdog, part of the lower class and his only achievement thus far, monetary wise, is to secure a job as an assistant at a telephone call centre.

Despite all this, he answers the penultimate question correctly and his hauled straight to jail on charges of fraud and cheating before even getting the chance at the big prize. What follows is a question by question account of how Jamal knows the answers, based on his experiences in the slum (luckily the answers-slumdog life links are in chronological order). Within the flashbacks of his life, we discover that he fell in love with a childhood sweetheart and that, before coming on the show, he had lost her forever.

It's a good movie, no doubt about it. Danny Boyle's direction is very good, as always, and he brings all the feel good elements together nicely, with added authenticity by using Indian actors and locations.

Whether or not the numb ass or the stupid idiots in the audience who insisted on talking throughout (obviously at a high pitch tone so that no one else seemed to notice, if their willingness to suffer silently was any indication), but I couldn't really connect with this movie. Sure, it was funny, and the scenery and images are wonderful, but I found myself not really caring whether Jamal got the girl or the millions. When things turn tragic and there is a race against time at the end, I found myself not feeling much at all.

The Millionaire quiz show scenes are a double edged sword: they are probably the most entertaining to watch, but end up bisecting the movie, almost as a distraction to the Slumdog's tale. To me, the movie became focused on "what happened in his life that allowed him to answer the next question" and this little trick became a bit tiring for me.

If I was able to buy into it a bit more, felt closer to the characters, then these little annoyances would have passed me by. A lot of other people loved the movie and it's bound to win the Oscar, so I guess I just have to blame my disinterest on the numb bum and the chatterbox in the audience.

Oscar worthy?

I suppose I've said my piece about the movie already. It will probably win the Oscar, but for me, it wasn't engaging enough and I felt more of an emotional tie to the likes of Milk, The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Danny Boyle's directing is always good though. He always does something different and is quite an artistic filmmaker. But I can't base my Oscar choice on his previous films and I still think Fincher did a better job this time around.

Rating?

7 out of 10

Post Movie Quote:

"Not much to say really but tut tut, sigh loudly, scoff and hope the person sitting next to me gets the thinly veiled point and stops talking throughout the movie. God forbid I'd politely ask them to shut up. Hmmm, guess what my pet hate is?"