Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008)
The film follows Jamal Malik, a boy who originated from the slums of India. The film is about his life experiences, which aid him to answering all the questions correctly on the game show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. Throughout the film we watch as he grows up all the way to his young adulthood. The film opens and we see him immediately being tortured as the police believe he has been cheating on the show, as they believed ‘no Slumdog’ would be able to answer the questions. We watch as they go through each question with him, and he explains how he answered them along with some brief backstory. I believe the film is a romance as it follows Latika and Jamal. Latika (Jamal’s love interest) is first introduced when they were still children, until she unwillingly separates from the brothers. Throughout each timeframe in the film, Latika finds Jamal and is loses him again, until eventually the two are reunited with each other. The film follows the sequence, prolepsis (a question), analepsis (backstory for answer), prolepsis (a question), etc…
As the film progresses, we learn more about Jamal as a character and his life story from this, we are able to feel more emotion for him. We see this through the structure of a question, prolepsis (backstory) etc… This allows the audience to care whether he wins the show or not.
The film was directed by Danny Boyle, who was also the director of Trainspotting (1996), which was another confusing fast paced film. Like Slum Dog Millionaire, the film originated from a book. However, the movie was deemed to be ‘un-filmable’, until Boyle proved this wrong.
Overall, I think that the film was very well thought out, with each piece of background matching up with the questions. It was also satisfying at the last question as it felt like the film had completed something. The final happy ending was also satisfying, as it had been frustrating to watch Jamal and Latika constantly getting split up so the two finally being brought together was re. Additionally, the fast paced film stayed interesting and didn’t become boring at any moments, keeping viewers on edge rooting for Jamal. Overall, I really enjoyed this film and would rate it 3.5/5 stars.
