I appreciated your review. I, myself am a Slumdog lover. However, I think a lot of what you said is right on. (Not in a million years would I ever be able to come up with what you said). The thing is people are so different & experience things so differently. When I saw it, I did care right away. The flashbacks both reminded me & sucked me in. I did believe it. I did identify with the characters & when improbable things happened I cheered, “wohoo, thank you God!, etc. etc.” At the end, I did long for them to be together & during rolling credits I got up and danced (I was at home with friends:) #1. I am a girly-girl romantic comedy snob & I experience movies differently than my husband or most men I know for that matter. It seems like people who do or don’t like this film is highly dependent on how you interpret it through your personality lens. And since everyone is so different, it makes sense to me that folks like me can get sucked right in & declare it our fave movie of 2008. So, anyway, just a thought on both gender & personality. yours truly, a slumdog lover. -grace

I’m not sure why I liked it so much, even while I acknowledge many of the same problems that you point out. I can’t deny the film is all of what you say. I suppose I could say that it “uses” cliches instead of becoming a “cliche,” but I’m still not sure how to flesh out that argument.

“And herein lies the problem with the movie. In attempting to be a feel good love story, the film perhaps overextends itself by entrenching this story in too much gritty realism. I feel Danny Boyle should have chosen between the two. The first section could have been an ideal opening act to a rather more serious, if more difficult, movie to watch, as it heartbreakingly yet beautifully paints the perils of living on the underbelly of a metropolis teeming with the poor, ruled by the rich and ruthless, and with an energetic middle class. It is in this sense that Millions, which had far more overtly fantastical elements such as Christian saints appearing in visions to the protagonist, works better as a film and can speak as an uplifting fable.”

On the whole, I enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire, but I thought the love story was too simplistic. Perhaps its because I wanted to see a nuanced portrayal of an enduring love through all of the hardship – but there is a lot of plot going on which buried opportunities to explore that. I know its hard to sculpt characters with depth when you have a lot of ground to cover in the narrative. But perhaps that wasn’t Boyle’s or Beaufoy’s intention in the first place. The film holds together more like a legend or an oral story that would get repeated by the community – “Did you hear about that street kid who won the Millionaire show?!”

Anyway – the filmmaker’s job is to made decisions to shape the story. Interesting how the decisions will resonate with some people and not others.

Thanks for saying so much of what I’ve thought since I saw SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. I’m bewildered by the critical response, since so much of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE strikes me as style over substance, and there have been far better films this year.

If SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE wins Best Picture at the Oscars, and odds are that it will, it will be just another in an extremely long stream of lackluster Best Picture-winners (TITANIC, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, AMERICAN BEAUTY, GLADIATOR, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, CHICAGO, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, CRASH, THE DEPARTED, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN).

Thanks for taking the time to describe your issues with the film. I still would like to see it, but perhaps not with the fervor I once had (sparked by the lavish praise that has been heaped upon it by many, I guess). I also appreciate your time and interview time with Boyle and his films, and that you have enjoyed/appreciated Millions as much as you have.

On an utterly different topic, have you seen Tarsem’s The Fall, by any chance? Ebert liked it and included it in his Top 20, so I was just wondering. I thought it was visually arresting (to use a tired phrase) and worth seeing. Just curious.

And I must admit that my wife and I actually appreciated Gladiator. It seemed to actually give a bit of thought to an afterlife – something that I haven’t found a lot of in mainstream film. Then again, I haven’t seen Crash, so….