Slumdog Millionaire
It feels completely inappropriate to say that I didn’t love it and yet, I didn’t love it. I really liked and enjoyed watching it, but at the end of the day, there were parts that held me up and kept me from completely falling under its spell. For the first hour, I was completely swept up in it — the cinematography, the child actors who did a tremendous job, the fast-paced action, etc. But by the second hour, I was starting to have some small issues that got in the way of the love. I don’t know much about Indian police, but would they really torture someone they arrested for cheating at a game show? I was thinking he was being interrogated for something having to do with Salim, but when I found out that it was solely because they thought he was cheating, well, that pushed some boundaries of believability for me. It’s India, not Iran… right? Anyway, the other thing that bothered me a bit was gaps in information. I wanted to know more about Salim. Likewise, I wanted to know what exactly Latika was doing living with the bad guy whose name is escaping me. Wife, sex slave… what exactly? And I’m a stickler for details. Unless “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” had a different set of rules in India, once you’ve gone pretty far in the competition, you never lose EVERYTHING. There are definitely benchmarks set that allow you to still get a hefty chunk of cash once you go past them. Again, these are the kinds of things that other viewers can let go, but I am just not that kind of viewer. I am perhaps too attentive and inquisitive for movies that don’t fill in all these details I desire.
Still, I thought it was beautifully filmed, I loved the soundtrack, was blown away by the child actors they used, and cared deeply about the characters, so it was definitely a wonderful film-going experience. But my favorite movies so far for this Oscar season remain “The Wrestler” and “Rachel Getting Married.”
Coming soon: reviews of “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader,” which I plan to see back to back on Friday as part of Kate Winslet Real Boobs (Oprah reference) Fest 2009.
