Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle, USA/UK) zero stars
The movie opens with a device it will use to tell the rest of the story- a question followed by a very pointed yet mystical explanation of how Jamal will succeed. Jamal is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it? A. He cheated. B. He’s lucky. C. He’s a genius. D. It is destiny. It is written. And that is half of the problem. Jamal’s life has a predetermined outcome calculated by the filmmaker to meet the desires of a hopeful audience.
Police kidnap Jamal (they suspect him of cheating on game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and torture him in order to elicit a confession. Torture methods of our innocent victim include beating, suspension by the arms, and electrocution. From this moment the audience naturally sympathizes with innocent hero. Jamal maintains that you don't have to be a genius to know the answers to those questions. Intrigued at this slumdog's stubbornness, the authorities agree to listen to an explanation, question by question, of how Jamal knows the answers. This device allows the movie to explore Jamal's life, providing insight into his character and setting up the love story.
Jamal explains situation after situation where he is the victim of some horrible atrocity (like having to jump in excrement because of his brother, having his mother's head bashed in before his eyes, him inches away from being blinded by an orphan collector, leaving his love in the hands of this horrible man, being threatened at gunpoint by his brother, and finally his brother raping the love of his life Lakita (she agrees so that Salim wont kill Jamal)). Each one of these atrocities explains how he knew the answer to the game show questions. Unfortunately, he did not learn a single thing at school (the final question asks about The Three Musketeers, a book he was supposed to read). Fortunately, his life “is written".
We learn that we are dealing with a saint. Everything Jamal says is true. Here is a person who never inflicts harm on others. A person who is always innocent but always suffers. Even being on the show tortures Jamal for he must relive these horrible events. Because of his propensity for truth, the police come to believe what we knew from the beginning, Jamal is innocent.
But memory is a funny thing. Memory, even the memory of saints, fails. What human can possibly relate the story of his/her life objectively? No human I know. No Holden Caulfield. No Guido. Not even me. However, the movie believes sincerely that Jamal is a completely reliable narrator and asks us to believe the same. This is how we know that the story is told by device, not person. Even a person who is truthful to a fault will tell his or her story unfaithfully. If the movie wants to give us a character, shouldn't it allow him to fail?
Jamal is infallible therefore he lacks human dimension. The movie tries to avoid this by saying that he is human but a mystical hand guides him to success. This touch of magic harms what could have been really beautiful about the movie- the love story. Again the movie relies on techniques, this time it’s a technique that continually separates Jamal and Latika to make their love seem urgent and to force magic into their final reunion. Because of Jamal’s magical destiny he finds Latika immediately every time he looks for her. In Mumbai, with 19 million people (as his brother Salim points out) Jamal finds Latika in less than thirty minutes. He asks one person and then there she is, waiting to run to Jamal. Yes, the story was written that way.
However, Jamal must win Latika. It seems that her heart knows money and security offer happiness. She refuses to run away with Jamal out of love even if it means suffering abuse from a rich misogynist. Jamal must win 20 million rupees to win her heart. The problem is that true love doesn’t love money; it loves the person. If the movie wanted genuine romance, it should have (SPOILER) allowed Jamal to loose the 20 million rupees but win the priceless prize of love. Then love will have its victory. Instead, we have reason to doubt Latika’s love. Why wouldn’t she run away with a rich friend who loves her, who she’s known all her life, and who will not beat her under any circumstance? Any woman like her would choose Jamal over an abusive millionaire.
It has been written that "Slumdog Millionaire is the film world's first globalized masterpiece" (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal). It seems that some critics completely overlook the facts. Though there are many internationally known movies like Modern Times, La Strada, Titanic, I guess that Danny Boyle is the only filmmaker with an internationally recognized "masterpiece". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described it as "a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way". Yes, every section does feature at least one club song in its entirety from ultra-modern artists such as M.I.A. "The film uses dazzling cinematography, breathless editing, driving music and headlong momentum to explode with narrative force, stirring in a romance at the same time" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). The characters do spend most of their time running. McCarthy concluded, "As drama and as a look at a country increasingly entering the world spotlight, Slumdog Millionaire is a vital piece of work by an outsider who's clearly connected with the place". How? By making a movie about it? (as my friend Ryan said).
As the movie readily admits "It is written”, written to manipulate this response from its audience.