Million Dollar Baby

'Slumdog Millionaire' has emerged as an early favourite for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. We won't know if it's even in the running until the nominations are announced on Thursday but, after nabbing a series of prizes on the movie awards' circuit, it would be something of a surprise if 'Slumdog Millionaire' doesn't feature among the contenders.

I watched the movie last night on a reasonably large laptop screen but, a few minutes in, I began to seriously regret not forking out the cash to see it in the cinema. The cinematography is easily the best of any movie I've seen over the past twelve months and I imagine it'd be even more impressive on the big screen. The film's score, which features a number of appearances by genre-melding songstress M.I.A., is equally fantastic.

The film is based on a book I'd previously read, 'Q&A' by Indian Author Vikas Swarup. I enjoyed the book but thought its story of a young man competing on the Indian version of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' was slightly contrived and that the narrative was a little formulaic. The story has been adapted quite drastically for the screenplay and, altough I think the plot is probably one of the weaker facets of the movie, it's a massive improvement on Swarup's original text.

A woman in Eurospar today went to enormous effort to persuade a slightly-mortified sales clerk, who possessed very little English, that he should go see this film. Statuettes or no statuettes, if 'Slumdog Millionaire' can have that sort of effect on people, it's destined to become a modern classic.

[Image: The Guardian]