Oscar Movie Review - "Slumdog Millionaire"

This is the third and last of the Best Picture nominees that I've seen. I am not curious at all about "Benjamin Button" and don't even have a 2% interest in seeing "Milk."

But back to "Slumdog." This was a wholly original movie that I highly recommend. To give a synopsis of it doesn't really do it justice, but here goes. A kid from the slums of Mumbai gets on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be Millionaire" and is one question away from winning a bunch of rupees. He's suspected of cheating (no "slumdog" could possibly know all the answers) so he's interrogated/tortured by police to confess. How he knew the answers sets the story in motion as it flashes back to his childhood and works it's way up to the present. Now, all this is put forth in the first few minutes, so I'm not giving anything away here.

The movie is fast-paced and has a kinetic visual style that keeps you interested, and an excellent soundtrack. It is all filmed on location in India and you definitely get a feel for the class warfare that goes on in that country and wonder how anyone could emerge from the widespread poverty there (which exists side by side to some extreme wealth and a fast growing middle class).

The three main characters are the "slumdog" Jamal, his brother Salim, and Latika, an orphan girl that Jamal befriends and spends the rest of the movie trying to get together with. The movie is rated R but it probably could have been a PG-13. There is no sex and no gory violence. There may have been a handful of swear words, but that was it. Much of the violence is directed at children, so that level of brutality probably gave it the rating (overall, the tone is pretty intense).

This is the front-runner for Best Picture and I hope it wins because it definitely deserves to. In a lot of ways, the underlying story is fairly traditional (rags to riches, boy gets girl), but the way it's told makes it seem totally original. It's probably a cliche to say you haven't seen a movie like this before, but the fact of the matter is, you haven't.