Slumdog Millionaire hits the jackpot
By Vanessa Ho
Slumdog Millionaire is not your typical Oscar-nominated movie. It isn't an epic like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or deals with heavy subjects like those depicted in Doubt and The Reader but it is a feel-good movie in a sense that is clouded in desperate, tragic and depressing circumstances.
The movie opens up as our hero Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is on the cusp of winning it all on India's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire but questions abound as to how he got here. Did he cheat? Is he a genius? Or is it written? The film explores how Jamal gets to this point by intercutting with his childhood experiences in the slums of India as he and his older brother, Salim, struggle to survive after the death of their mother. Tagging along is Latika, a young girl also orphaned who would pretty much become the love of Jamal's life.
Director Danny Boyle's depiction of the slums of India is heartbreakingly real and the experiences of these three young Indian youths as they struggle to survive are also quite emotional and hard to watch.
At the heart of the film is essentially the love story between Jamal and Latika (played as an adult by the lovely Frieda Pinto). Jamal goes on Millionaire in hopes to be reunited with Latika.
Patel is also winning as Jamal. You can see his desperation in his face as he tries to find Latika and as he tries to defend on why he knows the answers on Millionaire. The three young people that play Jamal, Latika and Salim are adorable and in the scenes depicting life in the slums their cuteness against this backdrop is heartbreaking.
But despite some of the bleakness, as I said, this is a feel-good movie in that you won't leave the theatre feeling sad over some of these characters fate but a sense of hope.
By Vanessa Ho
Slumdog Millionaire is not your typical Oscar-nominated movie. It isn't an epic like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or deals with heavy subjects like those depicted in Doubt and The Reader but it is a feel-good movie in a sense that is clouded in desperate, tragic and depressing circumstances.
The movie opens up as our hero Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is on the cusp of winning it all on India's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire but questions abound as to how he got here. Did he cheat? Is he a genius? Or is it written? The film explores how Jamal gets to this point by intercutting with his childhood experiences in the slums of India as he and his older brother, Salim, struggle to survive after the death of their mother. Tagging along is Latika, a young girl also orphaned who would pretty much become the love of Jamal's life.
Director Danny Boyle's depiction of the slums of India is heartbreakingly real and the experiences of these three young Indian youths as they struggle to survive are also quite emotional and hard to watch.
At the heart of the film is essentially the love story between Jamal and Latika (played as an adult by the lovely Frieda Pinto). Jamal goes on Millionaire in hopes to be reunited with Latika.
Patel is also winning as Jamal. You can see his desperation in his face as he tries to find Latika and as he tries to defend on why he knows the answers on Millionaire. The three young people that play Jamal, Latika and Salim are adorable and in the scenes depicting life in the slums their cuteness against this backdrop is heartbreaking.
But despite some of the bleakness, as I said, this is a feel-good movie in that you won't leave the theatre feeling sad over some of these characters fate but a sense of hope.
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