Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

If you aren't familiar with the logline of this movie, I'd summarize it as a dramatic and comic fable of a kid from the Bombay slums whom Fate leads to become an unlikely contestant on India's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

I was blown away by how deftly the director (Danny Boyle, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later) balances levity with gut-wrenching tragedy. It has some scenes so charged that my wife considered leaving the theater. As to life in the Bombay slums, "Just because it's a movie doesn't mean this hasn't actually happened to someone." But the epic journey of the characters, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood (played for each character by three different actors), is an incredible ride.

For at least the first half of the movie, I was in a state of tension -- the music, the moments, everything about the movie, just kept me pulling for these characters, especially as kids. But in comparison, the second half of the movie, though also fantastic, wasn't able to maintain the intensity of the first -- once the characters do grow older, I begin to forgive them less (as one would expect), and their flaws began to make me fall out of love with them just a bit. The epic sweep is part of what makes this movie so amazing, but it also stops it a little short from being a total 5-star movie. The acting is at times transcendental, at times just ok, but it never detracted from the movie for me.

I'd recommend that everyone see this, but be warned that it is a brutal movie.

Babe factor: There's a reason everybody is in love with Latika.
Beer factor: None. Then, afterwards, enjoy some hard alcohol to celebrate/drown your sorrows.