The Unseen Movie Review

Millions

Coming as it does from director Danny Boyle, this film is a significant surprise. This is, after all, the man who brought us the hugely unpleasant Trainspotting and Shallow Grave, as well as the zombie horror 28 Days Later. He’s hardly a prime candidate to produce something as sweetly engaging as this. In fact, in places it’s almost so sweet as to be vomit-inducing.

But it’s important to take films on their own merit, and in the context of what they are trying to achieve. This sets out to be a family film, and it has more than enough to appeal to all ages. The only requirement is to leave your cynicism at the door, or else the sentimentality – not to mention the religious aspects – could get overwhelmingly unbearable.

Yep, the guy who brought us Heroin, squalor and ultraviolence in Trainspotting is now bringing us the spiritual benefits of charity and an overtly Christian worldview. In fact, this could almost seem cynical after all, but in an entirely different way – a cynical attempt to tap into the American market. After all, it’s a British-set film with a British cast, the biggest name of which is the unknown outside the British Isles James Nesbitt, it has a fairly big name British director, yet is being released in the US first and has religious themes that are far more likely to appeal to Yanks than Limeys. It’s also set in a depressed part of the North, just like past British cross-Atlantic hits Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls and The Full Monty and, again like Billy Elliot, revolves around a boy who’s considered odd for his unusual interests. It seems to be trying to tick all the boxes at once.

Luckily for Boyle, if this was his aim he seems to have succeeded amply. The American critics almost unanimously adored this film, with praises heaped upon praises. It’s already a financial and critical success on one side of the Atlantic; the only question is whether it can translate – religious manifestations and all – back to the British market.

Ignoring the religious aspects – largely in the form of benevolent apparitions by various Christian saints – this is basically another retread of Brewster’s Millions, about a sudden influx of cash that has to be spent within a very short period of time. The story has been remade countless times before since its first appearance as a film in 1914, and this time is given an added contemporary spin – the reason the money has to be spent is that the cash is in pounds, and Britain is here just about to join the euro, making the currency itself worthless. Found by a small boy with an active imagination – a bit like Tim Burton’s schmaltzy Big Fish – there is now an added appeal to the youth market. What would a bunch of schoolchildren do if they had millions of pounds?

It is, however, more than just a fantasy-made-reality light comedy, with various messages about responsibility towards one’s fellow man and the rest of society. For some it may be far too preachy for its social as well as religious messages. It is, however, a finely-crafted movie nonetheless, and yet another indication that Danny Boyle remains an interesting, intelligent, highly talented and entirely unpredictable filmmaker.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM