I posted a few days back about my desire to see Slumdog Millionaire.  Well, we were able to take it in yesterday and let me just say that this film exceeded my expectations in every way imaginable.  Wow.  What an amazing movie.  Enthralling from start to finish.  The story was unique, the acting was great, the music was spot-on, the cinematography was breathtaking, and the directing was superb (mad props to Danny Boyle, he of Trainspotting fame).  This film is up for every major award and deservedly so.  This very well may be the best film I’ve seen in years.  In fact, I’d place it among my top ten of all time after just one viewing.  Just an incredible picture that is equal parts brilliant, shocking and heart-warming. 

The film is basically a love story set in the slums of Mumbai, portraying a life of hardknocks that takes brutal honesty to whole new level as a boy from the slums tries to track down his long lost childhood love (also from the slums).  It is littered with cringeworthy moments, each designed to top the previous on the “oh my god” scale.  But the payoff is worth it, I assure you.  As the NY Times put it, Slumdog is “one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable.” 

While I couldn’t help but marvel at Boyle’s work with this film, I also couldn’t keep from appreciating the perspective the movie provides.  Throughout the viewing and after, I kept thinking to myself how lucky we are to simply be born American, and how spoiled rotten we are as a society.  I mean, let’s face it – most of us have absolutely no clue how much the rest of the world struggles to simply exist.  To paraphrase Warren Buffett, we’ve won the “ovarian lottery”, particularly given the fact that a ridiculous amount of the world is mired in a poverty most of us have never (and hopefully will never) even remotely experience firsthand.  According to the World Bank and the Population Reference Bureau, more than half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day and 80% of humanity lives on less than $10.  Saddest of all, children are the most affected; according to UNICEF, roughly 30,000 of them die each day due to poverty.   This movie poignantly captures their plight while cleverly delivering a Hollywood masterpiece of Bollywood proportion.  Needless to say, I cannot recommend this film enough to all who read this post.  It’s one movie that you won’t soon forget. 

I couldn’t post this without providing another sneak peek at the film, particularly since the trailer alone nearly brought me to tears!