Movie Review: Millions
The most surprising thing to me about Danny Boyle’s Millions is how difficult the film is to explain. It is a movie about two pre-pubescent brothers who find a large amount of cash but only have a few days to spend it before the British pound is abandoned in for the Euro. One of the brothers tends to carry on conversations with Catholic saints. As soon as you start to say this, you can hear the pitch: “It is like Brewster’s Millions crossed with The Fisher King directed by that Trainspotting guy, and there is a kid who gives it a creepy Sixth Sense vibe.†And that might be an interesting movie. However, it wouldn’t be much like Millions, which is rather unlike any film I have ever seen.
It was not until the end when I saw whole families leaving the theater that I thought about how Millions is a family film, in the best sense of the term. The filmmakers are quite disciplined about making the entire film exist in the world of two children, and anyone in the eight-to-thirteen demographic would immediately relate to them. At the same time, much of the humor and poignancy comes from the difficulty the boys have understanding the motivations and morals of adults, which might make more sense to older audience members. The story is easy to understand, but the questions it asks are hard to answer. Most importantly, it invites a broad audience and group of characters without ever condescending to either. And as engaging as the story is, this film is driven by Boyle’s visual flare. He finds a new way to make ever scene energizing; I have seen a couple of his other movies but never been so impressed with the craft of his filmmaking before.
I don’t mean to indicate that Millions is a perfect movie. There are a number of threads that could have been resolved in a more satisfying way, and nothing was so funny of poignant that I am in a hurry to watch it again. But it is an uncommonly good one, and I do not know why it has not gotten more attention.
Speaking of overlooked films, there was a trailer for the new Miyazaki movie before Millions. The movie looks as fantastic as one would expect, and the trailer makes it look like Disney will do a better job of attracting crowds to this one than they did to Spirited Away.
Rating: 7/10