Toronto Film Festival unspools 'Slumdog Millionaire' Tuesday, September 9th 2008, 12:03 PM Director Danny Boyle, actress Freida Pinto and actor Del Patel arrive at the premiere of 'Slumdog Millionaire' At the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, I watched an ecstatic audience erupt with delight when director Jason Reitman stepped onstage after the first screening of "Juno." And this year, I saw the very same thing happen again at the premiere of "Slumdog Millionaire." With the first weekend of the festival past, it's clear that we've found our crowd-pleaser—the one everybody's talking about, and everyone wants to see. Interestingly, though, it's "Juno"'s complete opposite in style: it's not self-consciously clever, or quirky, or intimate. On the contrary, it's as epic in scope as its setting, the teeming city of Mumbai. As Boyle said yesterday, he was inspired by the city's "millions of beating hearts," and you feel that energy pulsing through every frame. Based on a bestselling Indian novel called "Q and A," "Millionaire" tells the story of an orphan named Jamal (Dev Patel), who is about to win a Hindi edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (The show is almost exactly the same as ours, with a host played by Indian superstar Anil Kapoor.) When the movie begins, Jamal has been arrested by police officers who don't believe someone of such a low caste could possibly know enough to win a game show. We're given four options: either he's a cheat, a genius, incredibly lucky, or simply facing his destiny. His explanation to the officers takes us back through his difficult life, in which each new challenge has helped get him closer to his ultimate reward. Which, as it turns out, isn't a game show payoff at all. "Millionaire" isn't a perfect movie, but it is a rare and very special one, the likes of which we don't often find in the West. (Boyle was heavily influenced by Bollywood productions.) And when you see it in November, make sure to stay through the closing credits, which inspired Toronto viewers to cheer with an energy that—believe it or not--actually eclipsed the thunderous ovation a certain pregnant teen earned here last year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/09/2008-09-09_toronto_film_festival_unspools_slumdog_m.html
