The film centers around a young guy who is winning big on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. One question away from victory, he is arrested and accused of cheating, because he is poor and more or less homeless, which naturally means he must be a drooling moron with no functioning brain cells. Clearly the showrunners didn't know about With Honors.
Taking the movie up a notch, and without trying to give anything away, you learn about his life through the questions the gameshow's host asks. It's a nice nonlinear narrative that is not always seen and is highlighted more when you consider how completely uninventive Hollywood is these days.What worked out best in the film for me was that it is so rare to find a solid film where the cast is not white. Bend it Like Beckham and others have tread this ground before, but this is an interesting groundbreaker because the director is a well-known guy. Danny Boyle is more appropriately known for directing Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, but to his best film will always and forever be Shallow Grave. It has a sentimental attachment for me, since my film buddies Dan and Luke introduced the movie to me and we all (a decade later) still make jokes about it and it was an early sign that the three of us would be good friends.
The movie does take a simple word like destiny and weaves a really cool story in a altogether unfamiliar culture to give a most pleasant surprise this film season. So once you read the other reviews from this marathon weekend you'll see quickly that Slumdog turned out to be the best movie I saw.
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