Slumdog Millionaire
Director: Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 1.0
Homeless orphan from the slums of India goes through hardship after hardship on his road to a Hindi version of the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", answering all of the questions correctly and winning a ton of rupees, but some - including the police - are convinced he's cheating. Not sure why the audiences are taking to this one (although I'm hardly the one to judge public opinion) as it is a clumsy combination: part-Pixote, part pop fantasy, with the gritty realism (violence, poverty, child prostitution, child slavery) clashing with the 'fantasy' element (it's essentially a love story). The gimmick - and yes, it's a gimmick - of having every question on the TV show tie into elements of the main character's life (played as an adult by Dev Patel) is hollow, but then again a lot of this film is hollow, especially the main character, who is sullen and unresponsive. For the final credits: a dance-off! (It's only fitting.)
