Slumdog Millionaire A rich portrait of a poor teen and his chance of a lifetime Tuesday, November 11th 2008, 8:02 PM Dev Patel isn't in it for money, rather the love of Freida Pinto, in 'Slumdog Millionaire.' There aren't many high-profile filmmakers as audacious as Danny Boyle, a rare contemporary director who takes consistent risks despite the inevitable potential for failure. Of course, that's why when he succeeds, he succeeds spectacularly. Take "Trainspotting," for example, or "28 Days Later." Or "Slumdog Millionaire." Boyle doesn't get all the credit for his latest, head-spinning success. He is, after all, working from an outstanding script by Simon Beaufoy, who adapted the best-selling Indian novel "Q & A." But Boyle is the one who wrestles this sprawling story into a tale that is simultaneously epic and intimate, earthy and unreal. When the film opens, 18-year-old Jamal (Dev Patel) is being tortured by police, for having committed a crime he staunchly denies. Jamal is about to win a record-breaking prize on a local edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," but both the host (Anil Kapoor) and the cops are convinced it's a scam. How, they demand, did an uneducated orphan like Jamal ever make it this far? That's a good question, and one Boyle spends the rest of the movie answering. Flashing between past and present, we follow Jamal's destiny, from abused street urchin to adored folk hero. What the elites overlook, but the masses understand, is that his extraordinary circumstances stem from entirely ordinary ones. Like so many others in Mumbai, he began with little and soon lost that. With each heartbreak he learned new lessons, all of which come in very handy on "Millionaire." But Jamal doesn't even want the money; he just wants the girl he's loved from the time he was a child. Latika (Freida Pinto) has had an equally hard life, finally winding up as the mistress of a vicious gangster. In one way or another, she's the answer to every question, and all Jamal is trying to do is win her back. Boyle borrows heavily from Bollywood, and every dazzling frame seems ready to overflow - with people, emotions and a riot of color. The romance is shamelessly soap-operatic, and the mood swings wildly from despair to joy. But when Boyle pulls back to show us his grand vision, it's a stunner. And everything suddenly falls into place, as if this uncommonly daring film was fated to work from the very start.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/11/12/2008-11-12_a_rich_portrait_of_a_poor_teen_and_his_c.html
