Slumdog Millionaire is one of those movies you don't really expect to get a lot of success in this country. The movie is set in India and a large portion of the dialog is in Hindi. But this movie succeeds in breaking through and reaching American audiences.
The movie follows the main character of Jamal. He is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? But he is doing so well that people suspect him of cheating. So while he is being questioned by the police we to get see his life story.
Jamal and his brother Salim live in the slums and do whatever they can to make money. Along the way they meet a girl named Latika and she becomes Jamal's love interest. But situations beyond both of their control keep them apart.
The movie is beautifully shot. Even though there are parts that take place in slums and garbage dumps the director did a great job of extracting the beauty from the locations. There is also a lot of unique camera angles in the film. There is one chase scene near the beginning of the movie where you go from POV shots, to ground level shots, to overhead crane shots. But this doesn't get disorienting and is put together very well. The music in the movie is also done very well. It is mostly Indian music but it really fits the mood and sometimes establishes the mood for a particular scene. My praise goes out to the people that scored this movie and put together the soundtrack because they did an outstanding job.
Since Jamal is telling his life story the movie jumps from present time to the past. Some movies can't really pull this off and it gets confusing or cluttered. Slumdog does a good job of having a good balance and not pulling the viewer out of the experience.
I have heard a few people complain about the ending but I personally thought the ending was done well. I won't give anything away but when you see the movie you'll probably see why some people didn't really care for it.
The acting is very good all around. The standout being Dev Patel who plays the adult Jamal. He has gotten a few award nominations and I would imagine he will probably get an Oscar nomination for his performance. The movie was a surprise to a lot of people when it won the Golden Globe for Best Drama. So I think it is one of those dark horse movies for the Oscar for Best Picture. I have said before that my pick right now is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but if any movie can unseat Benjamin it's Slumdog Millionaire.
My score: 8.0/10
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