I just came back from the cinema – as I happen to do quite often lately. Anyway, today, after a much too long time of waiting, my friends and me finally saw Slumdog Millionaire, which now attracts even more people due to their immense success at this year’s Academy Awards. Of course, after reading so much about this movie, I did have quite high expectations. But most of all, I relied on the opinion of my friends – all saying that this is THE movie to watch, that you really live with the characters through their whole turbulent lives and so on. So Danny Boyle must’ve done something right, right?
Shortly after the Oscar celebrations I read a tiny article in the beloved Metro about Danny Boyle’s father not being as enthusiastic as the rest of the world, or so it seems. He said the film was decent but that his son could’ve done better.
Now, personally, for me, the movie was good. I can say with confidence that it is a good movie. However it could’ve been better. Due to the film being set all around that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire show, it is split up in several fragments. Although it doesn’t make you loose the trail of their story, I don’t think it allows any deeper connection for the spectator to make with the characters. A whole bunch of fragments in this movie are very real, almost too real. I very much appreciate the director’s sincerity when it comes down to portraying the Indian slums, and I think everybody should see that the world put on screen is real, that there are still millions of children whose faith that truly is. However, I don’t think the whole prison scene should’ve needed the realism it had. For all the sadness that is already in this movie, for all the poor children and murderers, I think we would’ve understood ourselves the graveness of that prison, even without the beating, the drowning and the electro shocks.
So what exactly did it lack? Maybe it needed a bit less fake realism and a little more bollywood, for, however tragic the history of India might be, that’s what kept them alive, and that’s how those people really are. A little more colour in those settings covered by dust and dirt, a little more happiness in those children’s faces, and even if it was only because somebody escaped for once.
All in all this is a good movie. If you want to watch it, go. If you don’t necessarily need to watch it, don’t. I was curious, I wanted to know what the hype was about and now I know. Or I don’t know, for that matter. But whatever way you look at it, Slumdog Millionaire is an exceptional movie – exceptional because for once, a major motion picture, a blockbuster, a multiple award winning movie, did not shy back from the reality that’s out there and maybe, even if it’s just one single person out there, it did make an impact on someone.
