Who Wants To Be Danny Boyle?

Today we will be looking at Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire the 2008 British breakout hit.  The film has been described as one of the finest pieces of conemporary British cinema and a triumphant comeback for Boyle.  The film has also courted media attention (particularly in the Daily Mail) because of  its treatment of child actors involved with the film.

Slumdog follows Jamal (Dev Patel), an 18 year who has grown up in the slums of Mumbai, as he competes on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.  Jamal has been arrested by the police after suspicions were raised that he might be cheating on the show.  After initially being tortured the bulk of the film moves to a series of flashbacks of Jamal revealing harrowing incidents from his life that have allowed him to answer the questions on the show.  During this the story of his relationship with Lathika (a girl he has loved since his times in the slum) becomes apparent as do the lengths he has gone too in order to try and be with her.

The direction of the film is absolutely superb.  Boyle has managed to take what is quite a simple story and turn it into something that is both compelling and imaginative.  From the opening scene you are reassured that this is going to be a surprising and unforgettable spectacle, when shots of Jamal being tortured are contrasted with those of him as a child jumping into a load of sewage in order to get an autograph from his favorite Bollywood actor.  Boyle skillfully manages to tell multiple stories at once from Jamals hard childhood in the slums, his relationship with Lathika to his appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.  All of these stories could have survived quite happily on there own.  It is however the skill of a director such as Boyle that he manages to interweave all the elements without under telling any story. 

Boyles biggest achievement has to be his ability to tell such harrowing stories and still give a positive ending without it feeling like typical cheesy Hollywood romantic rubbish.  The ending feels deserved and not something that could only happen in Mills and Boon or a Sandra Bullock film.

Ignoring the issue of child exploitation and lack of after care paid by the film to those it has made stars (a lack of after care seems to be a specialty of Boyles, the set of the beach destroyed a beautiful area in Thailand). He manages to get a phenomenal performance out of his child actors.  The characters seem entirely believable and have nothing false about them. 

The films two leads played by Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are extraordinary.  Patel is spellbinding.  His portrayal of the young “slumdog” is both elegant and gritty.  His vercatility as an actor gives him the room to portray a wide range of emotions superbly.  By the end of the film you have fallen for the character and are anxiously waiting to see if he will answer the final question correctly.  While Pinto also puts in an outstanding performance which is both soft and gritty.

Overall this is a fantastic British film which deserves all of the accolades it achieved at the time.  It can be watched by anyone who has a heart and is open minded to cinema that is not always in English (although 70% of the film is in English).

8/10 – Spellbinding