I had been wanting to see Slumdog Millionaire, based on the book Q & A by Vikas Swarup, since hearing of the premise. The movie is essentially the story of a young man who grows up in the slums of India, falls in love with a girl, and realizes the opportunity to get back with her (after a series of tragic events) by appearing on the Indian television version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? With the success of the television program in America, and the reality that many wonderful movies have come from India in recent years, I couldn't pass up the temptation to see this movie. Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that is catching steam and with recent accomplishments at the Golden Globe Awards, it's a movie that may get serious Oscar consideration, as it should. Hopefully beyond that, it starts to get into more movie theaters for patrons to see.

I was somewhat upset going into the movie as a movie theater employee refused to let my son's girlfriend into the movie, despite her being 17 and with us. I gave the employee at the Warren Cinemas in Wichita the benefit of the doubt, as my son and his girlfriend went off to a local establishment nearby while my wife and I went to see the movie. After seeing the powerful film on screen, one of my first thoughts was a thought of anger; the MPAA rates terrible films that glorify sex, violence, and more PG-13, and here was a movie rated R that refused entry to for a 17-year-old accompanied by adults, a movie that has more potential to get the self-gratifying, selfish attitude of many in America to consider the realities of the harsh world we live in. There has to be something done at some point to get people to realize the overall redeeming value of a movie beyond the rating.

Whew! I got that off my chest, but now about the movie. Danny Boyle is a terrific director who just won the Golden Globe for direction for this film. To understand the talent of Boyle you have to consider that he is the same person who directed films such as Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, and the terrific zombie style film, 28 Days Later. Slumdog Millionaire is a tale much different than any of these stories, and the diversity and talent of Boyle shines through in what may simply be one of the best-directed films and efforts at storytelling in some time.

We follow the lives of three children to adulthood (and the tragedy of growing up poor in India): two brothers, Jamal, played by Dev Patel, his older brother, Salim, played by Madhur Mittal, and Latika, played by Fredia Pinto. We follow these three primarily through a series of flashbacks and via three stages of life where the primary characters are played by other cast members from childhood, to youth, to young adults. The horror, the tragedy displayed throughout the film should have the viewer considering the plight of the poor, but more than this, we eventually come to an extremely satisfying conclusion where we see the power of hope... although we see that the hope one has isn't based on whether or not one finds satisfaction in wealth, but whether or not one finds love.

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