Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Wow. I see why this film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It deserved them. It's a movie with heroes, bad guys, and bad guys who end up redeeming themselves with heroism of a sort. It is a film that affirms the power of love to overcome a disastrous start in life.
I don't ordinarily like heavily flashbacked movies, but there's a good reason for it here, as becomes apparent by the end. There is nothing pedestrian about the cinematography, and in spite of the fact that most everyone is speaking either Hindi (with subtitles) or various levels of Indian-accented English, it is completely comprehensible.
The language is coarse in a few spots, but it is the subject matter--the montrosity of growing up in the Mumbai slums, and the horrible things that happen there--that earns this film an R rating. My wife and I were not surprised, since we have read a bit about the problems of India, but I think for many Americans, they may find it shocking, and it is probably too intense for anyone that isn't a teenager. (Of course, there are people who take their kids to see Saw, so what do I know.) It makes you glad to know that as poor as you can get in America, you will never be reduced to this level of poverty.
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