slumdogmillionairereview.com

Nearly a month in to 2009, Best Picture nominee Slumdog Millionaire finally gets a “full” U.S. release in January. Of the gaggle of nominations this film has racked up, my personal feeling is that the film’s most remarkable achievements are in editing and cinematography. However, in the framework of the story director Danny Boyle is trying to tell, it’s basically that if you think your life sucks, take a look at this.

Slumdog is a rather gritty look at the childhood of a pair of orphaned, homeless boys in the slums of India. The film’s perspective is tell the story of our protagonist, Jamal, through a series of flashbacks tied to his appearance on India’s version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Jamal is arrested and tortured for suspected cheating on the program since a young slum kid could not possibly have known the answers on his own.

The film explores different periods in Jamal’s childhood that directly relate to the questions being asked of him on the program, in turn told by Jamal to the authorities that are questioning his ability to answer those questions.

Of course, the real focus of the film is Jamal’s life long quest to reunite with Latika, played by Freida Pinto, another orphaned slum child that he has had an emotional connection with. In addition, we have Jamal’s constant struggle to survive in the streets while trying to disengage himself from the ever-present shadow of organized crime and child slavery, a world that tears him and his brother apart.

Dev Patel plays Jamal in a brilliantly underplayed and distant performance. I spent great portion of the film really trying to connect with him and his real motivations, but ultimately, it was staring me right in the face. It’s the girl, stupid!

The film is a journey, but can be quite dry. I found that the distance I had from Jamal worked to sabotage my emotional investment in the film as a whole. The ultimate result of this left me somewhat cold when the final payoff arrives at the end. I’m not sure how to pinpoint this or even if it’s a fair criticism, but it ultimately failed to get it’s last hook in to me and with that, I would have to say the story failed on that level.

As far as a recommendation, that’s a difficult one. There’s little doubt that Slumdog is probably going to rack up a few awards come February 22nd. I do believe though that sympathy for the main character is not interchangeable with emotional investment in the story and the main character, which is where I’m left as far as the story goes.

In the other arena, the craftsmanship of the film is beyond reproach. It’s a brilliantly constructed work with imagery that is going to stick with the audience for a long time as well as a window into the dark side of a culture that most westerners are going to be surprised and taken aback by. In that respect, the film is provisional “must see” from me, just be prepared to be taken to some ugly places in the unseemly side of Indian culture and face an ending that borders almost being a “cop out.”