Slumdog Millionaire

"Slumdog Millionaire" is about Jamal, an unlikely contestant for the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" who somehow finds himself on the brink of the show's history in getting close to the 20 million rupees (supposedly $1 million dollars at the time in 2006), and his life's story somehow provides him with clues to many of the answers to questions he would face on his way to the final question on the show.

Director Danny Boyle puts on a dazzling display of directorial confidence in telling this story, which will surely stay with those who see the film. Orphaned at a young age, both Jamal and his brother Salim have to fend for themselves, and along the way, they take in a young girl, Latika. Surviving on the streets in Mumbai isn't easy, and their paths to young adulthood is often bumpy, and events that happen in their youth mold their character and lot in life.

The use of flashbacks as the tale unfolds isn't an original tact, but it's well done, and somehow keeps the audience on its toes as Jamal's past somehow relentlessly catches up with him at the crux of his appearance on a game show that could bring him riches, or take the love of his life from him.

The pace of the film is good for the first 2/3 of the film, but it stumbles a tiny bit in the final act as the events that come together feels a little too much of an artifice to wrap things up, but it's a minor quibble for such an engrossing story, otherwise.

I give the film 3.75 stars, or a grade of A-.