Slumdog Millionaire

When Trainspotting was released in 1995 film magazine Empire triumphantly heralded it as the start of a golden age of British filmmaking, one that could take on Hollywood at its own game while retaining all that makes British film great. It wasn't, shamefully, but it did mark director Danny Boyle as an intriguing talent. There have been a couple of mis-steps since, but for the most part he's proven himself to be not only the best British director working, but one of the finest full stop. And yet post Trainspotting, and the brilliant Shallow Grave before it, there have been some that have grumbled that he's lost his spark. In a sense they have a point as nothing he has done since has featured quite the same energy and vitality as those first two. That is until now.

Boyle has been quoted as saying that filming in India brought back the feeling of making your first film, on other words the kind of confusion that winging it brings was back thanks to an alien environment to shake him out of whatever comfort zone he may have settled into. As diverse, and sometimes brilliant, as The Beach, 28 Days Later, Millions and Sunshine were none quite had the visceral shock of Trainspotting's fractured narrative, roving camera and bravura sound and editing. Well just imagine all that transported out of Edinburgh to Mumbai and nary a junkie in sight.

Slumdog's essentially a modern day fable about fate in which an Indian Muslim from the slums manages to get within one question of winning the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? As such the programme's producers believe that he is cheating somehow and have him arrested. Here while being tortured he tells the police the story of his life and how certain incidents have led to him knowing the answers and why he is doing it in the first place. Much like Trainspotting the events of the film are presented in a jumbled order of flashbacks within flashbacks, flashforwards and time slipping all over the place as the film sees fit. Towards the end there is a moment where events are reversed that is simply breathtaking that I won't ruin for those who haven't seen it yet. Within these pockets of narrative the camera acts as another character, charging around the slums and the tourist attractions of India as if it were one of the slum kids excitedly running about looking all around itself at all of the wondrous or horrific sights.

Ah these sights, and I'm not just talking about the colour palette, as gorgeous as it is. Boyle has managed to bring a view of the complexities of the gap between India's rich and poor that never becomes mawkish or, even more impressively, too political. It's to the film's credit that Jamal's faith only ever comes into play once, and it's really just to move the plot forward, even if it is a tragic moment. Slumdog has a few of these. As much as it is an upbeat, feelgood movie it has to earn its happy resolution and as such we're introduced to some of the brutal practices that street kids in India are subjected to, including deliberate blinding with a hot spoon. Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom in these sections. The scenes at the Taj Mahal are hilarious, as is Jamal's brush with a Scottish customer when he's asked to look after a work colleague's phone in a call centre. Best of all is his encounter with a Bollywood legend that shows that he'll do anything to get what he wants, even if his shifty brother stands in the way.

Slumdog Millionaire finds Danny Boyle rediscovering that hyper-kinetic energy that has been missing from his films for the past decade. That alone is enough of a recommendation to see this, but the performances from a largely unknown cast are excellent and the story is wonderful feelgood cinema that also hits home how rough those have-nots of the world have it. The decision to set it in India proves to be an important one, not for story reasons, the narrative could realistically be played out anywhere thanks to social devisions in even the wealthiest nations. Rather it is because it brings the viewer something new, something exotic, something different. Boyle found this to be the case as well allowing him to turn in his best film in over a decade, one that might just dominate the Oscars in the way Trainspotting was meant to.