I like the movie. I just don't know how big the audience is for it. Just a few weeks after this statement, it was announced that Warner Bros. At this time, the film had already been accepted to the Toronto International Film Festival, and Horn was about to eat his words.
After months of uncertainty, Slumdog Millionaire finally made its world premiere at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival, where it picked up strong notices from critics.
Reports out of those screenings underlined how audiences would clap along to the screen over the closing credits, and indeed when the film hit Toronto, it became a runaway hit.
Still, Fox Searchlight knew they had something special on their hands, and bolstered by the strong reviews began positioning Slumdog Millionaire as an Oscar movie. The film was released in just 10 theaters on November 14th, and Fox Searchlight moved forward with a very carefully planned platform release, expanding the number of theaters slowly but surely over the course of November, December, and January before expanding wide on January 23rd—the weekend after the film picked up a whopping 10 Academy Award nominations.
And again, it should be emphasized, this was all for a movie set in India with no movie stars where a third of the dialogue is not in English. But Slumdog Millionaire was the little engine that could, largely thanks to its crowdpleasing quality. Given the third degree by a tough but ultimately decent police inspector the excellent Irfan Khan who demands to know how this lowly tea boy or "chai wala" from the slums could possibly know enough to advance to the show's million-rupee final round, Jamal flashes back over the key events of a life that, quite literally, contains all the answers.
The violent death of Jamal's mother at the hands of anti-Muslim extremists explains his familiarity with one of the Millionaire questions; a childhood infatuation with Bollywood movie star Amitabh Bachchan yet another; and so on.
The potential for a treacly Good Will Hunting of the Mumbai ghetto abounds, but Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy The Full Monty think more in terms of a minor-scale Dickensian epic with one major nod to Dumas : As Jamal journeys down memory lane, the crux of Slumdog Millionaire becomes the pull of time and tide on the relationship between Jamal, his artful-dodger brother Salim and the suitably beautiful, unattainable Latika Freida Pinto , the lifelong object of Jamal's undying affection.
It's Jamal's dream to rescue Latika from her current situation as the semi-willing concubine of a Mumbai underworld heavy—the same one, as it happens, who has Salim on his payroll.
Zigging to and fro, Slumdog Millionaire whips these familiar raw ingredients into a feverish masala, at once touristic and something deeper, that drenches the screen in the sights and sounds of modern Mumbai: Mischievous children scamper through mazes of corrugated-tin rooftops; crowds of washerwomen cleanse extravagantly colored fabrics in outdoor baths; eardrum-rattling traffic chokes the smoggy streets; trains clatter noisily into busy stations.
So intent seems Boyle and his ace cameraman, Anthony Dod Mantle on cramming as much visual and sonic information as possible into each second of the movie that even the English subtitles which appear in colored rectangular boxes during the Hindi-language scenes jostle for position in the already densely packed frames. That sort of hyped-up aesthetic can quickly turn wearying, as it has in several of Boyle's less successful ventures including Shallow Grave and the duly forgotten A Life Less Ordinary , but here it is a fount of ever-renewable energy.
And watching Slumdog , you get the sense that, like Shanghai as seen in the films of Jia Zhangke , this former stretch of colonial Britain is changing before our eyes faster than even Boyle's camera can capture it. A dystopian by nature, whose films regularly move in the direction of entropic chaos, Boyle resists the natural tug of Slumdog Millionaire toward happily-ever-after territory, counterbalancing each of Jamal's triumphs with equal or greater episodes of personal loss and steadfastly refusing the age-old movie wisdom that love conquers all especially money.
Yet it's that very tension between gritty, street-level reality and fairy-tale invention that ultimately makes Slumdog Millionaire feel even more buoyant and life-affirming. Like so many of the Bollywood melodramas it stylistically apes, Boyle's film is unapologetically pop, even as Boyle himself seems to be at once inside and outside the idiom, embracing it while winking slyly at our collective need for escapist fantasy.
Then, just when you figure he has pulled out all the stops, Boyle proves to have one more trick left up his sleeve: a joyous musical number that sends everybody out of the theater feeling like a winner. Join the Observer community and help support independent local journalism in Dallas.
Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Support Us Dallas' independent source of local news and culture. A woman's face is deliberately scarred with a knife.
Fist fighting and other shooting deaths. A supporting character is being taught courtesan's skills before being sold into sex slavery at a high price due to her status as a virgin ; some kissing; implied semi-sexual activity between a pre-teen boy and girl.
Non-sexual nudity a child's buttocks are seen. Strong, including "s--t," "hell," "damn," "crap," "piss," "bugger," "py," and non-sexual uses of "fing. Parents need to know that despite incidents of violence and cruelty, Slumdog Millionaire is a sweeping, thrilling drama that mature teens will be able to take -- and will probably very much enjoy. There's some extreme violence -- electrocution, murder, and violence perpetrated by, and on, young children -- but it never feels exploitative or simplistic.
The film revolves around issues of class how could a poor "slumdog" like the lead character possibly do so well on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Add your rating See all 39 parent reviews. Add your rating See all 95 kid reviews.
He's dragged in for questioning by the police, who want to know how he's cheating -- which, in their eyes, is the only way an uneducated boy from the slums like him could possibly be winning.
Beaten but unbowed, Jamal tells his interrogators stories from his life that explain why he knows the answers. He also talks about the long-lost love of his life, Latika Freida Pinto , who he's trying to get in touch with and save through the unlikely mechanism of being on the show. Directed by Danny Boyle Trainspotting , Millions , this is a bold, big, and beautiful film. It's a rich, gripping tale of heroism, struggle, true love, and unfailing friendship set in the rough-and-tumble world of modern India.
Slumdog Millionaire has the feel and structure of a great Dickensian adventure combined with a bracing, modern look at life in 21st-century India -- and brilliant performances as well. Patel shines as the honest, striving, good-hearted Jamal, while Pinto gets to be far more than just "the girl. Slumdog Millionaire features some rough stuff -- violence, poverty, exploitation -- but at the same time it has a heart and humanity that shine through even in its darkest moments.
And when the finale unfolds, it feels truly earned considering all that's gone before. Slumdog Millionaire may seem a little tough to get into at first with its blunt depiction of the cruelty of life and the switches between English and Hindi throughout the film, but it unfolds like a plain-spoken thing of wonder; it's easily one of the best films of Discuss the nature of Indian society -- from class to religious conflict to the nation's role as a growing economic superpower -- and about the way Slumdog Millionaire depicts hard work, good morals, and quick wits.
Are they seen as virtues? What are the differences -- and similarities -- between Indian culture and American culture. How are they different? What do they have in common? What does the movie say about the growing process of globalization? What does it mean when British customer service calls are answered in India?
Or when an English game show becomes immensely popular in a completely different nation? How does Jamal demonstrate perseverance and integrity in Slumdog Millionaire? Why are these important character strengths? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners. See how we rate. Streaming options powered by JustWatch. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes when you use our links to make a purchase.
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