In theaters
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, 120 minutes, rated R; now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.
“Slumdog Millionaire” proves that Danny Boyle is among the most restless directors working in Hollywood today. He has tried his hand at so many genres, one has to wonder what’s left for him. A silent film?
Don’t bet against it — or him.
Chief among the genres Boyle has sampled are the excellent 1995 thriller “Shallow Grave,” the breakthrough oddity that was 1996’s “Trainspotting,” a few failures in the 1997 romantic comedy “A Life Less Ordinary” and 2000’s “The Beach,” then onward into his terrific 2003 zombie slasher “28 Days Later” and 2005’s moving childhood fantasy, “Millions.”
Now, keeping with the millions theme, the director comes through with an international drama underscored with suspense, torture, love and betrayal, a good deal of which are fueled with the unstoppable energy of Bollywood pop. It’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” it’s set amid some of India’s poorest locations, and yet here’s the irony — it’s one of last year’s richest movies.
The film follows Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, wonderful), who opens the movie by taking his seat as a contestant on the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Instead of being paired opposite a grinning Meredith Vieira, Jamal must face something creepier — Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), a cruel host with a mean mouth who is at a loss at how this poor, uneducated “slumdog” has answered every question correctly.
With only one question left, and 20 million rupees hanging in the balance if Jamal nails it, the show ends, the audience clears, and Jamal is abducted by authorities, who start torturing him in an effort to make him admit that he’s cheating.
Only he isn’t. And so begins this young man’s story, with Boyle showing that Jamal was educated the hard way — not from books, but from life on the streets. To prove to the chief detective (Irfan Khan) that he never cheated, Jamal describes how he knew the answer to each question asked of him.
It’s an ingenious tactic that allows Boyle to slide in and out of the past and present, where the horrors of Jamal’s childhood are revealed like a scar on a cheek, and where, if Jamal can convince the detective that he’s telling the truth, he might be released so he can take a shot at that final question.
From Simon Beaufoy’s script, “Slumdog Millionaire” digs into India’s gritty depths, where it juxtaposes squalor, exploitation and corruption with humanity’s fight to overcome it. Elements are predictable (that’s a quibble), but the movie never is slight, in large part due to its superb cast.
Woven into the dense plot are Jamal’s tense relationship with his brother, and also his growing love for Latika (Freida Pinto), the beautiful teen he first met as a young orphan, and who proves critical to the film’s ending.
And what an ending. When it hits, those who haven’t experienced Bollywood and are unaware of how great it can be will find themselves transported when Boyle offers a brazen tip of his hat.
Grade: A-
On DVD and Blu-ray disc
EAGLE EYE, Directed by D.J. Caruso, written by John Glenn, Travis Adam Wright, Hillary Seitz and Dan McDermott, 118 minutes, rated PG-13.
Since the very title of D.J. Caruso’s “Eagle Eye” promises a certain clarity of vision, it’s a shame the movie lacks one. In fact, let’s be clear about the experience of watching “Eagle Eye.” It’s akin to being tossed into the business end of a washing machine, spun on high for the better part of two hours, and then released into the world feeling bruised, scraped and battered.
Four writers worked to mangle the script, all of whom wrote such a ridiculously convoluted screenplay, you sit there thinking, “Wow, this is a ridiculously convoluted screenplay.”
Since describing the movie’s stupid, unwieldy plot in detail would mean taking over the entire space allotted to the Internet, let’s just cut the plot down to its essentials.
Shia LaBeouf is Jerry Shaw, a bright bum from Chicago whose world collapses in a series of events that go like this: Jerry’s twin brother dies, cell phones start to ring, a computerized female voice starts directing Jerry through all sorts of hell, the Feds get involved (a bland Billy Bob Thornton among them), much chasing ensues, buildings crumble, cars explode, and Jerry unwittingly is led to Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), a single mother who also is being bossed around by that same robotic voice.
What’s behind the voice is a computer that will remind plenty of HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” because, let’s face it, Caruso and company stole the idea from that movie. That said, they didn’t do so without pimping out their own version with all sorts of menace. Housed in the Pentagon, the computer can tap into any number of available technologies to spy on people and create havoc in an effort to achieve its desired end — killing the president of the United States and members of his Cabinet.
It’s into this equation that Jerry and Rachel factor, but in ways that become so ludicrous, the only response is to laugh, sigh or cry, particularly because a key plot element involves the need to prevent Rachel’s son from tooting his trumpet while playing it in front of Congress.
I’m not joking. If Junior blows his horn, everyone dies. Seriously. So, here’s a tip. Should you rent this baby and want it to end sooner, grab a horn, take a deep breath and toot yourself out of it.
Grade: D
WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, DVD giveaways and archive of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.