Danny Boyle's
Millions could easily have been the typical treacle we've become accustomed to seeing from the major studios. A story about a couple of young brothers, their recently widowed father and a new house sounds to me like either the set up for a generic horror movie or an awful manipulative tear-jerker on Lifetime. But add Boyle's technical flair, a stray bag stuffed with thousands of stolen British pounds, a crew of saintly apparitions and an absolute knockout performance by Alex Etel as the younger brother Damian and you have the amazing final product that is Millions. Irreverent but never disrespectful, the film deals primarily with Damian's struggle to do what is right. Missing his mother, who was his moral guide, he turns to historic saints for advice. Their appearances are some of the film's many highlights (though those easily offended will, no doubt, be offended) from St. Peter's retelling of the fish and loaves miracle to St. Joseph's emergency stand-in in Damian's school nativity play. Millions is touching, funny, idealistic and most of all completely human.