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I had seen a few trailers for "Slumdog" and heard and read various reviews that created a judgement for me that I would not like the movie all that much. While we are admonished time and again not judge a book by its cover, or a movie by its poster, we all do make judgements based on what we hear, what we read, and what we experience. And this was the case for me and "Slumdog." Hearing the plot line of a Mumbai orphan playing and winning round after round on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" I cringed somewhat. How, I thought, can this movie be getting such positive buzz for an Oscar? Surely it must have some covert leftist-Hollywood-PC speak message, a la "Inco(herent)nvenieth Truth" with a plot like this to get so much attention.
We happened into the movie because of few of the others on our list had already started, or were starting at a time we both knew were late enough to ensure my sleeping through much of the film. Thankfully "it was written" that we see the movie. Despite my not trusting the plot line to be able to carry the movie and be worth the $7.5o price of admission, I was carried along from scene to scene to scene throughout the entire film. It was masterful how director Danny Boyle strung together the past and present of young Jamal, so much so he won the Oscar for Best Director. What I saw as a weak plot line Boyle saw as an opportunity to push and pull his audience through Jamal's life until the very end of the movie. Great directing, scriptwriting and acting make almost any plot masterful, "Slumdog Millionaire" proves the point.
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What the difference between a great movie and a bad movie? It is not the plot. It is the production, a great movie combines the right director, actors, and script and they will make the plot work well. A bad movie is missing one or more of those ingredients.
P.S. A modern theater does not hurt though. We saw "The International" at the Marketplace in Long Beach; after the plush comfort of our usual Edwards 349 screen big seat, tiered seating theater watching a movie at the Marketplace is akin to sitting in folding chairs in the lunch room with a sheet separating your "theater" from the one next door.
1 comment:
I had a similar experience with Slumdog. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was the only movie on my list at the theater. Now I'm glad I went. We saw it, by the way, at the movie complex down at the New Pike, which is very nice, and usually not very crowded.
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