Christmas Countdown: Top 25 Movies of 2009 – No.2

Okay technically today’s choice is a 2008 movie but for the sake of clarity it meets the criteria having being released in January 2009 in Ireland. A great heart-warming master-class in cinema it deservedly walked away with many of the top honours in last years awards season.

The second best movie of 2009 is…

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating, as there is just no way a kid from the streets could know so much. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Intrigued by Jamal’s story, the jaded Police Inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out…

Why it is worthy: It’s wonderfully real, this isn’t the sugar-coated, singing and dancing India of Bollywood, this is the honest grimy, dirty, run-down, decrepit, crime-filled real life of the Indian populous. It shows the stark contrast between the haves and have-nots and expertly shows how confidence, self-belief and more than a litle luck can help a person find their way out of their situation, even in conditions as desperate as the slums of Mumbai. The rags-to-riches story could have been cheese-tastic but instead it is filled with warmth and emotion. Dev Patel plays Jamal with a great inner strength and real air of belief, while Freida Pinto is achingly beautiful and yet very grounded as the object of Jamal’s attentions. Trainspotting director Danny Boyle shows a lot of his own self-confidence and belief in letting the story and the surroundings provide the colour without interfering. The flashbacks work brilliantly to flesh out the story and ive us a insight into Jamal, his friends, the abject squalor and great hope that they live with. The cinematography is top-class, giving character to the city itself, and the sharp editing and exquisite score punctuate the movie perfectly and give momentum to the story as it heads towards its climatic finale.

Fatal flaws: It’s cliched out the wazzo and the ending is like a freight train that can be seen coming a mile away. The movie glamorises slum living to a certain extent and it definitely provides a somewhat glossy overview of the lives of people who live like this day in day out. Th constant flashbacks can give the film a slightly jerky nature and rob it of some of it’s impetus. For a romantic film, or at least one with a romantic centre there is quite a lot of frantic chase sequences. Some will find the constantly moving camera and the wide-angled shots nausea inducing and there is more than a touch of a cameraman with ADD on hand. If you like your Indian movie more sedate or musical then go elsewhere, for the rest of us this is cinema done right.

Verdict: Breath-taking and brilliant, stylish and stunning. This is the kind of movie that gets everyone’s attention and keeps it long after the final reel has unspooled.

The Countdown

25. This Is It
24. Adventureland
23. Drag Me To Hell
22. Anvil
21. In the Loop
20. Watchmen
19. The Hangover
18. Coraline
17. Public Enemies
16. (500) Days of Summer
15. Harry Brown
14. The Wrestler
13. Fantastic Mr. Fox
12. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
11. The Hurt Locker
10. A Serious Man
9. Let The Right One In
8. Gran Torino
7. Zombieland
6. Inglourious Basterds
5. UP
4. Star Trek
3. Moon