Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight Pictures, R)
If films like Trainspotting and 28 Days Later didn't convince you that director Danny Boyle knows what he's doing, then Slumdog Millionaire certainly will.
Indian street kid Jamal (Dev Patel) gets the chance of a lifetime when he appears on his country's version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But, after making it through with only two questions to go, the authorities figure no "slumdog" could know all the answers without somehow cheating. Jamal then has to explain to his interrogator how a poor kid from the slums managed to learn so much.
Boyle, along with writers Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup, use flashbacks to tell Jamal's story, and every one is vivid. Diving into a dung heap to get an actor's autograph, living with his older brother in a city dump, making easy money from tourists at the Taj Mahal...All leading to his triumphs on the popular game show.
Slumdog Millionaire takes the hard, run-down living of street life and constantly contrasts it with the small moments of splendor in his short life. Jamal's memories, for instance, are usually filled with the dusty, fast-paced images of someone lying, stealing and begging just to survive. But, his most recent memory of the girl he longs for, Latika (Freida Pinto), is a bright picture fixed in glorious slow motion.
It would be easy for me to say that Patel and Pinto make this movie great and leave it at that. The truth, though, is that literally every performance is amazing. From the children who portray the street kids at various ages, to the cop (Irrfan Khan) who listens to Jamal's stories and the doubtful game show host (Anil Kapoor).
There are several new-comers to film populating this movie, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see many of them for years to come.
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