"Slumdog Millionaire" and its director, Danny Boyle, with their modern-day fairy tale about hope and hard times in the slums of Mumbai, pushed aside big-studio contenders to sweep top honors at the 81st annual Academy Awards on Sunday.
The rags-to-riches story is set in the grubby backstreets of Mumbai. Half the script is delivered in Hindi. And the plot is sort of destructive and hits home hard.
This being a Danny Boyle movie, the precious answers are nailed to brutal scenes. They involve frantic scenes through Mumbai's crowded markets and flashbacks to dirty slums where the nine-year-old Jamal, and his older psychotic brother Salim, spend most of their childhood fleeing the clutches of pimps and gangs.
Indeed, "Slumdog Millionaire" is guilty of all sorts of twists like a long-distance romance between Jamal and a sultry beauty Latika forced into prostition. It keeps you engaged in the excitement that is going to happen with the two characters.
The two young actors, Dev Patel who plays Jamal and Frieda Pinto playing Latika, are very appealing and sympathetic. The images are pleasing even when they shouldn't be and it's unsettling to watch the young nonprofessionals playing them enact such a pantomime. It doesn't help even if you remember that Jamal makes it out alive long enough to have his 15 televised minutes.
Beautifully shot with great sensitivity to color by the cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantel, in both film and digital video, "Slumdog Millionaire" makes for a better viewing experience than it does for a reflective one.
The swirling, excitig Indian-music-based Pop score by A.R. Rahman recieved Best Sound at the Oscars Sunday Night respectivaly with high nominations.
Boyle has a restless artistic spirit tht guides him from one challengng, unusual project to another. Not all his past projects are winners, but "Slumdog Millionaire" is definitely one. A big one. GRADE: A-
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment