Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

This is one of those films that I saw the trailer, wasn't too impressed, then listened to critics fawn all over it so much that I just figured it had to suck. It just seemed uninteresting to me, but I couldn't have been farther from the truth. I finally watched it and found it to be a very entertaining and memorable film on all levels.

It ends up being a look at the poverty of another culture sort of disguised as a feel-good love story. There's some social commentary for sure, but there's also laughs, action and drama. It's a nice mix of all these things. Any movie that has the main stream of it's story be about a TV game show, yet still has enslavement, police brutality, torture and slaughter, it's really running the full gauntlet of emotions (and entertainment) in my book. Once I started watching it I couldn't wait to see what happened next, and I never had to wait long. It's got a great pace and the storytelling is superb.

At a time when the majority of movies coming out are sequels, based on video games, based on comic books or remakes this is a nice little escapist trip that's pretty original, really well shot and wonderfully entertaining. In a word... refreshing.

8.5/10