With Danny Boyle back in the entertainment news and Oscar buzz for his innovative “Slumdog Millionaires,” people are trying to remember where they’ve heard his name before.
How about “Trainspotting,” and that indelible scene of heroin addicts emerging from one of the filthiest toilets imaginable? Or think of “28 Days Later,” one of the most viscerally disturbing horror films of the past 20 years, with its furious lab monkeys and speed-freak zombies?
But the British writer and director has a sweeter side. A few years ago he made a wonderful family movie called “Millions.”
For the few adults lucky enough to have seen it, it was, for many of them, one of their favorite movies of 2005. For kids who haven’t come across it yet, “Millions” is the kind of movie families should watch together on a lazy Thanksgiving afternoon, or a post-Thanksgiving Friday when the cousins are starting to get on each others’ nerves.
“Millions,” directed by Boyle from a script by Frank Cottrell Boyce, tells the story of 7-year- old Damian, a dreamy British kid obsessed with the lives of the saints. Damian has visions of saints as a regular part of his day, and Boyle makes it all seem perfectly normal, the way other children might have an imaginary friend. Damian wonders if his dead mum might be a saint; in the meantime, he sits in his cardboard playhouse near the railroad tracks.
And then a bag of money falls on him. Robbers toss a bag of pound notes from a train, and Damian starts using the cash for good deeds. His older brother wants to use the cash for fun. They argue and spend, and then the robbers come looking for the goods.
Every bit of “Millions” is well-acted and crammed with gentle humanity and dramatic tension.
It stays true to its characters and its own idea of how the world might work.
“Millions”
Rated: PG-13, for
mild language,
some threatening
scenes involving robbers,
and some juvenile
views of budding
sexuality.
Best suited for:
Parents and any
child over age 7 looking
for a film that
both ages can put in
their top 10 for the
year.
