SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla

Reviewed by Vance Aandahl

Danny Boyle must have been channeling Horatio Alger when he made SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Armed with pluck and spunk, Boyle’s illiterate little orphan boy endures electrical torture, immersion in shit, and an old man with a spoon before winning 20,000,000 rupees on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and finding true love. In the end, as the credits roll, our hero, his beloved, and several hundred colorfully dressed extras break into a spontaneous but perfectly choreographed song-and-dance number on the platform at a crowded train station.

Hollywood loves a lurid, preposterous, overly sentimental rags-to-riches story. I bet SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE cleans up at the Oscars.