What I liked:
- Dev Patel; he had the perfect countenance for our honest hero. Can he play bad boy, or is he a one-trick pony. One could be so distracted by the horrors as to not notice so-so performances. The electrocuting policeman was rather believable.
- The final exuberant Bollywood dance; a well earned release after the overwhelming story.
- An effective portrayal of the slums — the amount of space available to children wanting to play, why they’d risk life and law to play cricket on the neighboring tarmac.
- Mostly I’m impressed by Danny Boyle going over there and making this movie. What a supreme effort!
What bothered me:
- The hype. I’m a stickler for being told Absolutely Nothing before seeing a movie. Some innocent passerby couldn’t refrain from exclaiming about how inspiring it was.
- Formula — the phone in the car, the getting the girl — just two in a long list of predictable events. Although I will say that the surprise twist was in fact a surprise. I would have answered incorrectly.
- Evil was too evil. The brother was too much of a jerk, the bosses were over the top nasty; the shit swim speaks for itself. This may be true to life; and for some reason it struck me as cartoonish or at the very least unpleasant. Whether or not this is true to the story, it didn’t feel right somehow. Recently I rewatched a well-written violent thug movie with good acting, tight story….this was no that.
- I’m losing steam….I *was* marking time. This was not a full on suspension of disbelief situation.
- Grrlfriend Latika bored the crap out of me. Yes, she was beautiful. And…?
Overall, the movie induced a superficial romanced/freaked out by India reaction. I didn’t feel like it brought me to some deeper, more significant awareness. It’s no small feat to communicate the horrors of living in the Muslim slums of Mumbai. That was profound. But there was something about the arc of the plot that felt well-worn. And a lot of the acting simply wasn’t that great.
