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Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire

Member rating

224 reviews

This dazzling adventure set in Mumbai is the story of a slum-dwelling teen accused of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Certificate15

Duration117 mins

Review by

  • Oscar, 20
  • 193 reviews

Unpleasant, but strangely not unwhatchable.

4 stars

22 Nov 2024

I want to say before anything is simply saying "I liked it" doesn't do my feelings justice, I don't hate it, far from it, but that doesn't mean I like it. There is something worth talking about with this film, however, the story is so dismal you start to vaguely wonder: Why don't the characters just give up? Of course - and this is coming from a writer (though not yet published) - to have a story worth telling you have to put your characters through Hell and then make them learn something. Kurt Vonnegut said something similar, and I've put the exact quote at the end, but there's only so much before your audience gives up and your characters just... Break. There's a framing device where the main character is tourtured and then interviewed about how he managed to win the indian Who Wants to be a Millionare? Which made it so that it was constantly shifting between now and then, a similar method - though barring the torture interview - is used in memento. In Slumdog Millionare, I think it's used well, though leading to feelings of disorintaion - which I think is intentional, adding to the confusion the main character would feel as a young boy in a loud and violent world. There is another thing they do to add to the confusion is that, initally, everyone speaks indian. Personally, I feel it isn't bad though there should've been subtitles. Last thing before I end this, nearly every adult in this film is eather a creep or abusive. The few nice adults are probably the presenter, some American tourists that go unamed and the girl, who does go named, but I can't remember it. I just wish there were more nice people in this film. "Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they're made of." - Kurt Vonnegut.

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