Doubting Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is underwhelming. It is not a bad film just medium, pedestrian. The fact that it was nominated, let alone selected, for Best Picture is confusing. I have not seen all of the other nominees so I can't comment on whether they were more deserving but I have seen two films from last year that were not nominated, Doubt and The Wrestler, and can say unequivocally that both are better than Slumdog.

The story centers around a poor Indian boy from Mumbai, a slumdog, who by chance ends up on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Much to the chagrin of the show's organizers, he gets all the questions correct despite having no formal education. The authorities assume he is cheating since no slumdog could ever get these questions correct. Through the course of his interrogation we learn how he knows all the answers. I guess the point of the film is that life isn't all about education and status. Life experiences are educational and we should not draw conclusions about people based on their upbringing. That's all good but it is not an original theme nor is it a particularly inspiring or original take on an old theme. There is no creative cinematography and the script is not particularly good. The film is just average. It leaves you uninspired and slightly unsatisfied.