Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Not too go all superlative, but "Slumdog Millionaire" is the most exhilarating, electric, shocking, dazzling, vibrantly alive, and romantic film of 2008. (Notice the absence of "uplifting".) Its energy jumps with dazzling visuals, a pulsating sound mix, charisma-loaded actors, and the best film score of any Hollywood feature in years. To think this gem nearly went straight to DVD and suffered through studio hand-offs over xenophobic fears of marketing and profit. (Yet, Warner spent a $100 million on "Rush Hour 3"? A 20th Century Fox subsidiary released this. Good for them.) In 2008, as the economy and nation, the world seems to be derailing, derailed, this is the film we need, now more than ever, in 2007 or maybe next.

Straight off, the film is an ironic, reality-free fable in vein with a Dickens novel or any of the countless fantasy stories of a desperate child who grows up to make good, but new and exciting. It opens with a 20-ish man Jamal (Dev Patel) successfully blazing his way through India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," the game show where participants answer A, B,C, D questions for huge money. Jamal is a child of Mumbai's harshest slums. Being a "slumdog" (basically an offensive term for India's poor), he can't be intelligent and push his way to win the game. Or so he's told. As are we. Tossed in jail as a cheat, Dev takes his policemen captors through his life story and why he knew each answer. The scene rockets -- this film moves fast -- to Jamal in his early school years.

His best friend/worst enemy is his brother Said (Madhur Mittal as an adult). The young boys' lives are harsh and the film pulls no punches in its portrayal of staggering poverty, or savage and graphic child abuse, including sexual. Orphaned after their Muslim mother is killed in a religious-sparked attack, the boys steal, improvise, and con to eat and stay alive. As they grow older Jamal manages to keep his soul; to borrow a phrase from "Lost," he has a constant -- the beautiful Latika (Freida Pinto in adulthood), a fellow orphan -- to keep him grounded. But Said has no focus, and becomes hooked on violence and inflicting pain.

Back and forth the film goes, from the game show to the jail to the past for a dizzying ride. I can't say the film is realistic in the least, Jamal's luck on the show seems to be directed by God, and the script (by Simon Beaufoy) is more than happy to play that card with a wink and a nudge. And, there definitely is a devil in the detail, the game show's host (Irfan Kahn, an Indian star who could make mincemeat of Alan Rickman in a Sleaze Contest), himself a survivor of the slums who will not allow anyone to mimic his success.

Here, director Danny Boyle surpasses even the pulverizing world he painted in "Trainspotting." Every color pops with neon life, and the camera doesn't just capture the action, it is the action. A long scene at the Taj Mahal makes you feel as if you're a visitor, and when the orphans race through the mazelike slum alleyways fleeing policemen, the camera is right on their heels. This tale of children is not for children, it is full of death and moments so harsh you'll gasp in horror, but "Slumdog" has more life, joy, and hope than any film released this year. The spark, the fight, the energy on screen, in the lives of these characters, we need it now, across the globe. Cherry on the cake: The closing credits has the cast singing and dancing on a train platform to a spectacular Bollywood musical number. So damn good. My favorite film of 2008. A