Slumdog Millionaire

So I'm going to try to watch all of the Oscar nominations for Best Picture. I don't know how far I'll get, and that's not why I watched this, but hey, I'm doing it. I don't think Slumdog was quite deserving of all the awards it ended up winning, but it was still a good movie, a nice mix of a love story, a look at the bad situation in some parts of India, and a pretty taut thriller all in one. I don't think I've seen any of Boyle's films before but he seems to work in a lot of different styles and genres, and seems quite competent and putting a movie together. I've heard a lot of controversy about its depiction of the Indian slums, and it not being a good representation of the country. I think it's a mistake to take the film completely seriously, because it's not supposed to be a realistic story. The whole thing is about how a kid knew the answers to game show questions because his own life experiences had them in chronological order, and how fate ties him to a girl he met when he was a child. It's very much a creation of fiction.

There's an interesting mix of tones throughout it. There are several moments of Hollywood fun and fantasy, although it's generally much bleaker than that. From the beginning when the protagonist and his brother are set on the run thanks to the Bombay Riots, to the underground, scummy world they get caught up in, to his treatment at the mere inkling he may have cheated, it doesn't paint a very pretty picture of the country. I felt like the movie probably deserved it's R rating, even though it earned it almost entirely on things that were implied rather than shown. Whether or not it's a fair view of life in India, it's an exciting, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes heartwarming movie. The use of music, including the original songs, was very good, and it was pretty technically sound throughout. It wasn't the deepest story ever, but it was improved by the skill of its construction and is definitely worth checking out.