This is a good movie, but I don't think it lives up to all the hype. By hype I mean the 4-star reviews and the National Board of Review awarding it best movie.
Jamal (Dev Patel) is one question away from the top prize on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when they break for the day. Immediately Jamal is arrested and interrogated by the police. They don't believe he could possibly know the answers to all the questions he has answered, and they want to know how he is cheating. See, Jamal is a slumdog, an orphan from the slums of Mumbai.
As he tells the police how he knew the answers to the questions, we see his life story in flashbacks. His mother was killed when he was very young. He and his brother lived for a while in a garbage dump until they were rescued by a man who seems to run an orphanage. This guy, lets just call him Fagin, uses his orphans to make money for him by begging. In the most horrific scene in this movie, we find out how much he is willing to harm these kids in order to make money.
This movie is a fairy tale. You have to believe an awful lot. The coincidences that he learned the answers to all these questions throughout his life. The idea that Latika, the love of his life, would end up so sweet and pure despite a life of begging, prostitution (most likely) and crime. The improbability that he would end up on the gameshow in the first place. But if you can get past those and just enjoy the story, you will enjoy one of the most original movies of the year.
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