Although it has been sitting on the sidelines in the “to be watched” pile, I’ve kept putting off watching Slumdog Millionaire. I think it has largely been due to all the media attention it received, especially pre-Oscar and then post-Oscar.
Unfortunately, I watched it last night but not under the best conditions. The weather has been dreadful in my part of the world and I’ve had headaches for about six days running, including last night as I watched the movie. With a soundtrack including a lot of Bollywood-ish sounding music and M.I.A. music, I was not the ideal audience.
So now I have to watch it again, under better conditions, in order to give it a proper chance.
As it was, my response was essentially, “It’s okay.” It was a good movie but not the wonderful film much of the hype made it out to be. Or so it came across to me.
There has been a lot of talk about the romance in the movie and, while it is there, the romance is really in the last act. It’s set up by a kind of coming-of-age story in the first two thirds, focused largely on two brothers, Dev Patel’s Jamal being the main character. I found the movie most compelling when he was on screen, as the older Jamal. Not that there was anything wrong with the rest of the movie. It’s just to say that was when I was most engaged.
I suppose, given my headache, the feel of the movie was irksome for me because, quite rightly, it tried to refect the chaos of Mumbai, the activity, the sound and so on. None of which goes over well when your head is pounding. 
I suspect it is a much better movie than what came across to me and I believe when conditions improve and I see it again, my opinion of it will change considerably. Still, I’m not sure I’ll find it quite as marvelous a movie as some seem to find it. I think there may be some misplaced earnestness in some of those views, a feeling as if because of its subject matter and the part of the world it looks at, we should find it admirable. I don’t agree with that (if it is the case). But I agree it’s a good movie.
However, until I see it as I should, I’m not sure how good it is.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
nobullshit 07.28.09 at 3:45 pm
personally i think that the producers had an alteria motive with this movie. I think that they wanted to show ho poverty stricken and scornfull india is because the movie wasn’t all that . I am still trying to undertand what all the hype was for. This movie was total crap and people acted like if the movie was really great but it wasnt when are we going to break to the actors taht they wernt good actors and that people felt sorry for them .Stop bulshitting it was no good
Trulyfool 10.04.09 at 2:50 am
What worked for this film was the novelty for American audiences of seeing an interesting slice of Mumbai. The story began with some possibilities — Vittorio De Sica 60 years and thousands of miles translated. But boy did it hollywoodate quickly, even before the bollywoodation took effect. Watchable.