#42: Slumdog Millionaire

My first foray into IMDb’s Top 250 is (drum roll, please): #42 on the list, Slumdog Millionaire. It is one of the newest additions to the list, having been released in 2008, and is the latest winner of the Best Picture Oscar. This was a surprise to me, since the typical award winners and nominees over the past few years all seem to have agendas; Brokeback Mountain, that movie about the transsexual, and Crash to name a few, which are all kind of preachy, politically correct dribble to put it bluntly.

Slumdog Millionaire is none of those unkind words, however. It is a stylistic, dramatic, tragic, happy, and very likable love story about a couple of poor young boys and a girl in the slums of India trying to get by. The storytelling and pacing of this film make it enjoyable to watch. The story begins with our heroes and heroine as young kids, which is told in a series of flashbacks in the mind of the main character, Jamal. After a while the picture becomes clearer as to where our hero is in the present time. He is being questioned by the chief of police after being accused of cheating on the TV show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I won’t give away any more of the story so as not to spoil anything, but the paths that the three characters take in their respective lives is a great part of the story. You really do get to care about the characters, which I feel is one of the most important parts of making a truly enjoyable motion picture.

Slumdog’s presentation caught me a little off-guard. It is very stylish and slick, with interesting filters and other camera effects that really help to bring out some of the colors in some scenes and set the mood for the shot, which brings me to particular point of interest about this film. The beginning of the film is cute and funny, with little Indian children running around causing mischief. As the film progresses, however, the mood swings to a kind of gritty, sometimes violent, and real-world approach. I really liked this about the movie. As in real life, there are good times and bad; sometimes the good comes out of the bad, sometimes vice versa. Having the story progress along this path is an interesting choice and I feel as if it succeeds in both tickling the funny bone and tugging at the heart stings.

That’s why I think audiences enjoyed this movie so much, because it delivers the whole package. You get the rags to (possibly) riches story of our heroes, the love story between a couple of characters, the cute kids story, and the real world drama story. There is something here for everyone and it is all done so well. If I had to choice one word to describe it I would have to choose “enjoyable”, because that’s what it is. Well done Hollywood, you finally picked a good Best Picture. 8/10