Now That I’ve Finally Seen “Slumdog Millionaire”...

Agent 5150 has a fantastic daughter, a month away from being 8 years old. While I get to experience the priceless moments of watching my child grow up, I don’t get to see movies in the theater too often any more (those of you out there with kids can easily relate, right?)...

In the end, the tradeoff is a no-brainer, but it’s especially easy to swallow in this day and age of stupid screenplays, ridiculous popcorn prices, and obnoxious cell phone users. However, one of the minor drawbacks I deal with every year is the fact that I never get to see the five (soon to be ten) ‘Best Picture’ Academy Award nominees until they come out on DVD in the late spring or early summer after the Oscars have already been handed out. You can peruse my previous blog posts and see my recent reviews for “The Reader”, “Frost/Nixon”, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (I try my best to see all of the nominated flicks, but some just obviously aren’t my cup of tea & I won’t waste my time with them, integrity be damned…that’s why “Milk” isn’t included here). Since I finally chiseled some time out to see “Slumdog Millionaire” about a week ago, I feel as though I can FINALLY throw my two cents’ worth out there into the blogosphere with respect to the Academy’s 2008 selections...

First off, let’s look at “Slumdog Millionaire”...neither as great as critics would lead you to believe or as horrendous as its detractors would have you think, “Slumdog” is a typical Hollywood underdog romance, albeit set in India. We follow a street urchin named Jamal through all of his young life’s hardships as he plugs along on his quest to reunite with his one true love. There are laughs and tears, betrayals and tragic misunderstandings. Blah, blah, blah.

The conventional script doesn’t do the film any favors. The acting is adequate, but not great. Danny Boyle’s directing is subpar - a slo-mo, hyperkinetic, handheld camera mash-up. The terrible soundtrack grates on the nerves of anyone with decent musical taste. So why does Agent 5150 give “Slumdog Millionaire” a respectable rating of 2 ½ Eddies?

Quite simply, the one factor that makes “Slumdog” Oscar-worthy is the framing device used as both the film’s climax and a clever tool for disclosing the events of Jamal’s life. Jamal (at this point, played by Dev Patel) is on India’s version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” and as the nefarious host pushes him through question after question, the answers unfold as flashbacks to the formative moments of the ragamuffin’s early years. Brilliant stuff...almost makes up for the mediocrity that permeates the rest of the movie.

So, in retrospect, how does Agent 5150 look back at 2008’s Oscar choices for ‘Best Picture’? With grave disappointment. Of the four nominated films that I saw, none were true classics. “Slumdog Millionaire” & “Benjamin Button” were mildly ambitious but flawed. “The Reader” and “Frost/Nixon” were humdrum projects that pandered to typical Academy tastes (biographies, historical dramas, Holocaust tales). The impending expansion of the ‘Best Picture’ field from five to ten is a dark cloud of embarrassment hanging on the horizon for the Academy...if you can’t find five good flicks to nominate in any given year, how are you going to come up with ten?!?!