SLUMDOG MILLIONAIER – WHAT WENT WRONG?

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle – Director, 2008  

Can we change the channel?

HOOK: Looking at a miserable life from the possibility of a new one that comes out of nowhere. 

LINE:  “Can you believe this use to be our slum?” 

SINKER: This movie is: a) a classic  b) overrated  c) better than watching the game show on TV  d) worth discussing with the tech-support guy on your next call to India 

SPANKY: kids and photography are spectacular. The framework: heavy handed, exploitive and audience demeaning. What bothers me most is that we have to see this reality through gimmicks and promises of wealth. The fantasy of Bollywood seems more genuinely intended. This is a “knock ‘em down, pick ‘em up” Capra film, viewers have moved beyond. In the end it is a racist melodrama that uses real misery and human degradation as the backdrop for a fairytale of how everything works out in the end by winning a goddamned Western game show. 

“TWO PAWs Down” (1 BARK out of four) 

JOHN: I agree. This is a love song for the tone deaf told in 90% flashback. Why not assume an audience is smart and give them something that is worth their time (if not their emotions)? Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot it’s a movie for people who watch TV (“The Bachelor,” “America’s Got Talent,” “Deal or No Deal”). And let’s be really PC and give the film an armload full of Oscars. That certainly takes care of any problems of poverty, crime, child molestation and racism. The final musical number is worth the price of admission, but not our souls. Not our souls. 

GO, GO (2 GOs out of four)