One Word Review: Slumdog Millionaire

74: Written

A to B Back and Forth Review: Slumdog Millionaire, Part III

A few days ago, Brad and I began our conversation about Slumdog Millionaire. Then we continued it. Now it's time for the wrap-up in the aftermath of the movie's Oscar victories.

BRAD
Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:35 AM

My closing thoughts here Reed-aroo!

The results have been tallied and Oscar has chosen. Slumdog taking the top prize at this point is not exactly surprising, is it?. Actually, I think if it had not won that would have been a bigger shock. Like last years World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies, Slumdog got hot down the stretch and took that momentum all the way to the prize.

I think Slumdog will certainly have longer legs than recent best picture winners Crash and Million Dollar Baby. These days I think the greatest way to measure a films lasting impact is longevity. Will we sit on your sofa in Buenos Aires and watch Slumdog via your Slingbox on TBS or F/X two or three years from now? My guess is yes. I think the exotic appeal of the films locations and quixotic lead will not only keep this film in front of our eyes, but will also likely spawn a host of imitators that will open India’s doors to the masses.

Your Springer Final Thoughts?

Tot ziens,
Kozy

ANDREW
Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 11:07 AM

Kozy, now I know you're just trying to provoke me. Why else would you mention Crash to me? Seriously, that's like going to Applebee's for dinner and saying, "Well, I enjoyed this meal a lot better than that BMT from Subway last night." Let's just move ahead. The Phillies won the World Series? I had no idea. Baseball isn't exactly on Sportscenter here. I seriously question the legs of Slumdog. I definitely enjoyed the movie, but I don't have an urge to see it again. Maybe I'll buy the soundtrack, though.

All in all, Slumdog Millionaire is a fine film in a weak year that benefited by Oscar leaving eschewing the two best films from nomination. Oscar's always reliable that way. I would recommend this film to probably everyone, but would be cautious of contributing to the overhype that you mentioned earlier. Will India bring us more films along these lines? I sure hope so. There's a truly great film just waiting to be made, lurking beneath the pizazz of this one. Someone out there has the talent and artistry to pull it off. I can already see the posters, "It's like Slumdog Millionaire, but with a good story!" I can't wait.

Un abrazo,
A

A to B Back and Forth Review: Slumdog Millionaire, Part II

Yesterday, Kozy and I started with our analysis of Slumdog Millionaire, posting Part I of our back and forth conversation. Here's Part II.

BRAD
Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 8:43 AM

Reed-O,

Before presenting my final answer on the game show question, let me briefly backtrack to the soundtrack issue. I concur with you that the soundtrack moved the movie and in many ways was the most innovative and interesting part of the film. The chase scene during the Christian raid on the boys village is my favorite sequence in the movie. Not since Run Lola Run have I seen music so successfully intertwined with the pace and balance of the storytelling. Rather, my point was that I will not be running out to Media Markt to buy the CD.

I also agree it is important to discuss the game show technique used to tell the story. At first glance, it appears somewhat interesting, non-obtrusive and novel, especially when compared to Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar competition. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button chose (or was it pre-destiny?) the worn-out, pathetic device of granddaughter reading grandmother's diary to her on her deathbed, I felt like I was watching Fred Savage and Columbo in The Princess Bride.
Anyways, the quiz show technique is of course not new, or novel. During Slumdog Millionaire I was actually thinking more of Running Man (as Schwarzenegger Sunday author, a film you are surely intimately familiar with) and Robert Redford's Quiz Show. But more distractingly, with the Rupee denominations getting higher and higher, the images dancing through my head were of Howard Stern and his radio bit Who Wants to Be a Turkish Millionaire, where strippers and other non-dilettantes provide stupid answers to stupid questions. Yes, having Stern and strippers running through my brain was a bit distracting.

Other options? Of course it is rare to find Memento, Reservoir Dogs or even Back to the Future, movies that break the mold of traditional storytelling and present linear alternatives that are vastly better than what has been done before. Imploring a less traditional vehicle would have eliminated the smarmy one-dimensional game show host character and lessened the negative pre-destiny issue you refer to in your email, which I also found distracting. I will imagine that for the hopeless romantics out there, this notion of fate providing the ideal questions to this student of the streets is overly satisfying. The equivalent of me wildly cheering Rocky Balboa as he chops down the Russian in Rocky IV. But for a movie like Slumdog Millionaire, that is at its heart supposedly telling a serious story of abject poverty, it is hokey.

Of course I am interested in how you will relate Slumdog to Citizen Kane, The Usual Suspects and Trainspotting. Tonight is the 2009 Oscars. Unfortunately the time zone's are unkind to me and I will not be watching live. Will fate be with Boyle and crew tonight? We'll soon find out ...

Cheers,
Kozy

ANDREW
Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Ah, Kozy,

I was actually thinking that I would totally buy this soundtrack. Maybe I can blast these tunes for you sometime and forcibly have them win you over. Regarding the gameshow, the whole thing played out in a very gimmicky way. I referenced Citizen Kane because the big theme of that film is, "How do you tell the story of a man's life?" For a 19-year old chaiwalah, it's remarkable that he has had enough trials and tribulations that his existence could warrant a feature-length narrative. The gimmick in this case has a paint-by numbers feel. Citizen Kane went through the character's life in sequence by talking to the people he encountered. The procedure used here also mirrors The Usual Suspects, with the police officer interrogating the main character as his responses tell the story. Maybe it's every person's dream that they could be on a gameshow and have every question be luckily tailored to their life. But that, again, makes for pretty hokey theater.

However, I did enjoy the ego battle between Jamal and the host of the show. As Jamal's confidence grew, he began to stick it back in the smug host's face, and was clever enough to defy him when he needed to. At that crucial moment of defiance, I couldn't help but think that everyone he's ever encountered in his life has screwed him over. He sensed that it was happening again and parlayed his instincts into millions more. I thought the same thing about Howard Stern at least five or six times. Incidentally, his grand prize nets out to $411,600 which doesn't sound like all that much, but in India, he'd be rollin' in doughnuts. As far as The Running Man goes, I certainly see how Richard Dawson's presence would improve this, or any movie. But I wasn't expecting Buzzsaw to ride by on his motorcycle swinging his chainsaw overhead at any point.
I mention Trainspotting just because you have to wonder if Danny Boyle has a strange fetish after sending two protagonists, uh, down the tubes. Well, that and the banging tunes while people are chased by police. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As you mentioned at the oustet, the hype has been tremendous. It certainly seems fated that Slumdog will take home the big prize tonight. And I think it's right up the Academy's alley. They have a long track record of picking inaccurately, particularly on Best Picture (I'm looking at you, Dances With Wolves!). It's also clear that they didn't do a good job picking nominees this year. Other films such as The Dark Knight would have given Slumdog Millionaire a good run for its money. But if it wins, hey, what're you gonna do? It is written. God is great.

Let's see how the awards play out and then we can serve up our final thoughts.

Hasta mañana,
Reed

We'll be back with part III tomorrow

A to B Back and Forth Review: Slumdog Millionaire, Part I

I'm teaming up with longtime friend, Kozy of April 31st to review films. We're calling the segment "A to B" because I'm Andrew and he's Brad. And he lives in Amsterdam, and I live in Buenos Aires. We generally won't get the new releases when the States do, but hopefully we can either help you reminisce or head out to the video store. Our first review - Slumdog Millionaire.

BRAD
Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:57 PM

Hey Reed,

Last Thursday I caught Slumdog Millionaire at my local international movie theater chain – Pathe @ de Munt. As moviegoing experiences go, catching a flick here in central Amsterdam is fine, but it has its drawbacks. For starters there are a lot of Dutch people there – just kidding!! Really though, the things worth mentioning are 1) all subtitles are in Dutch, meaning that if an actor is not speaking in English I have no idea what they are saying and 2) going to the movies is quite inexpensive, so people tend to make it a social occasion, carrying on conversations and drinking heavily.

But before I can even begin discussing Slumdog Millionaire, I have to call a time-out to talk about one of the previews. Reed, I am not sure if you have seen the Marley & Me trailer yet, but if you haven't, it's a must, for one simple reason – Kathleen Turner Overdrive. For all of you guys out there with hot wives or girlfriends, let these words be your warning – very very bad things can happen to once beautiful women. About four months ago I caught Body Heat (1981) on TV. While not a great film, it certainly plays to its advantages, which are mostly a very very hot, scantily clad and sometimes nude Turner. She was unquestionably a babe back then. Even ratcheting the clock forward 20 years, while no longer a prize, she still looks acceptable in 1999's The Virgin Suicides. Fast-forward 10 more years and now we have a Kathleen Turner that looks like she is gunning for Anne Ramsey's role as Mama Fratelli in an upcoming Goonies sequel. Yes – it is that bad! "Come to mama Slothy, come on hmm?"

You gotta admit, Brad makes a compelling argument

Needless to say that got me in a good mood to watch Slumdog Millionaire. At this point this is unquestionably a very hyped movie. Earlier in the week I watched Danny Boyle and crew clean-up at the BAFTA awards, so I knew that I would have to temper my expectations. Hype often leads to disappointment and this was no exception. Walking home after the movie I knew that I liked the movie, but there was something about it that just did not resonate. Still, a week later, the only thing that I can really point to is that I could not relate to this story whatsoever; and I believe that that has nothing to do with geography or socio-economics. Rather, I think it has to do with age and the story.

I found the story to be unexceptional in every way - a classic tale of friendship, love, heartbreak and making good. Of course a great story is not needed to make a great movie. Especially when the real story is the country of India and the city of Bangalore. Boyle super-charges the movie with amazing action sequences around the city slums, set to pounding dance music. Unfortunately, I found some of the cinematography to be distracting, and the music overwhelming. Roger Ebert compares this movie's poverty to City of God, a movie I loved. Unfortunately, I just don't see the connection. I agree that City of God is as much about the city as it is about the characters – and that is what set it apart. But with Slumdog Millionaire, I got lost in the style and for me that style (and music) overshadowed the story the city was trying to tell me.

The issue of age is usually not a problem for me. I love high-school based movies, university based movies, etc ... but you know all of this Reed – simply put, I am a man who has seen Can't Hardly Wait no less than 10 times. But with this movie, while the story spans 15 years of the characters' lives, I rarely found myself identifying with them at any of the ages. I think they were simply to young for me to relate to at a peer level, and I am not old enough yet to identify with them from a parental viewpoint.

I'll halt my opening salvo there. What do think about all this?
Cheers,
Brad

ANDREW
Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 12:17 AM

Kozy!

Interesting that you bring up Body Heat while: (a) It was 40 degrees here in Buenos Aires yesterday. For those that don't speak metric, that means 104. I sweated through my shirt and left salt stains all over it. I was a wet, stinky mess. It felt like India. (b) We're about to see another acting legend who was quite the hottie in that film, but has since seen it all fall apart, but I'll leave those comparisons for the next review. Yes, Kathleen Turner was almost impossibly sexy in Body Heat, but I'd say she hit the wall like no other when she played Chandler's dad in an episode of friends in 2001, and pulled it off a little too well. Unfortunately, "Marley y Yo" has come and gone. I'll have to wait to skip that one on video.

I was thinking about you when I saw the subtitles. I was able to follow the Spanish, but kept failing to notice when they shifted away from English, so I often missed a few lines. But it was effective for the story and added to the verisimilitude. The real power behind Slumdog Millionaire has nothing to do with the love story, which I will politely call hokey. Of course you can't identify with these kids. They have grown up in abject poverty. You have nothing in common with them. It certainly appears that they really filmed this story in the slums, and that gave the movie power and energy that we never get to see, especially in a hokey love story. We don't have poverty quite like that here in Argentina, but there is a level between India and, say, Chicago, that does exist. There are people who live in clusters of sheds made from sheet metal. Most of them work a job picking through garbage. They get their kids started in the family business early, and you know those kids never have a chance. They don't get an education, and will end up in the same place. Becoming a chaiwalah would be a great success for them, even if we don't have chaiwalahs here. And to me, that was where Slumdog Millionaire was affecting. Because they live here on the same planet we do, and Boyle did a good job of showing that existence.
I must disagree with you on the soundtrack. I thought it was amazing. It carried the movie, providing a consistent, energetic tone that pulled me into the story. Honestly, I think the music was my favorite aspect of the film. But in general, I came away with a similar feeling that you did. At its core, what is this movie? To sum up the story, it sounds brilliant. Two brothers who are born into hopelessness, and see nothing but poverty and tragedy, yet still manage to make it big. But the characters are painted with such broad strokes, it's hard to connect to either of them, as you say. And when fate is running the show, as we are expected to believe, it removes free will from the characters. All that said, the younger they were, the more engaged in the movie I was. Being chased through the slums by police with a boomin' system banging out beats will do that to you. The big problem with this is that as the movie went along, I became less engaged.

I couldn't help but think of Boyle's 2004 film, Millions, and how it similarly followed two kids who got into all kinds of mischief. But he clearly learned from the mistakes of that movie, avoiding making this one a kids' film. These children had a lot more life in them, and I can see why people are so enamored with the story.

But we haven't talked about the gameshow setting, and the technique they used to tell the story. I'll throw out these titles that I felt the movie borrowed from in various regards:
Citizen Kane
The Usual Suspects
City of God (yes, I see the connection)
Trainspotting

We'll be back with Part II tomorrow.