Slumdog Millionnaire
Saturday afternoon movie for a mother of a three year old. Second day of spring. Low 50's in Texas. Those three factors alone seems like the making of fiction right there. But they were real - when I should have been doing landscaping, Mother Nature sent a cold front and gave me an extra afternoon to just relax and watch a good film.
I absolutely loved this movie. It's important to note first and foremost that if I had purchased the movie or had a rental for longer than 24 hours, I would be watching the movie again right now, Sunday morning March 21st just before 9 a.m. The movie stayed with me all day.
The previews of this movie totally set me up to believe I was going to watch an uplifting movie about an impoverished Indian boy who makes a big win on India's version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionnaire?" That IS the overarching theme, but it is a glimmer of a thread that is first woven through disturbing scenes of torture, corruption, violent and horrific torture of children who have no one to advocate on their behalfs.
JP summed it up early on - "so is this movie all about how he knew the answers to the questions?" Yes, that is exactly the plot of the movie - on the surface. But Jamal learned the answers to most of the questions because of experiences no child should ever have to even imagine much less endure. It's just a movie, on one hand. But these are truths for the slumdogs of India and many countries - it even happens in America, where we would like to believe it doesn't. It truly breaks my heart. I'm sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to ruin the movie. And I also just don't even want to describe some of it.
If it isn't clear, those are the parts of the movie I disliked. But they are necessary core content.
What I did like, without ruining it all because if you haven't seen it I hope you take the time to do so, was the love felt by one child for another child that drives his soul and his very being through adulthood. It is a true love - one of forgiveness, loyalty, protection, lack of judgment, and the kind of love that would drive someone to be completely crazy for the sake of the object of that love alone. And yet it wasn't mushy or corny at all.
I also liked that the theme of disloyalty emerges repeatedly - of selfishness, self-centered survivalism, and how it is so easy to take that road when you live in the slum. But with an odd sort of optimism and a sense of justice, in the end it is overcome.
Slumdog Millionnaire is a movie of passion, survivalism, overcoming odds, a lot of luck, and above all love and optimism. It is an amazing movie and truly deserving of the Best Picture Oscar.
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