Slumdog MillionaireMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Slumdog Millionaire."

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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 86 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Director Danny Boyle's riveting and kaleidoscopic tale, based on Vikas Swarup's debut novel "Q and A," is exquisitely adapted to the screen by Simon Beaufoy. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Like all good fairy tales, this outsize celebration of perseverance and moral triumph contains within it a deeper idea -- in this case, the relative nature of what we think we know, and what's worth knowing at all. No doubt Dickens himself would approve. Read full review

  • 90
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, Slumdog Millionaire is a blast. Read full review

  • 90
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    Boyle has been nothing if not bold with this film. He's dared to use so many venerable movie elements it's dizzying, dared us to say we won't be moved or involved, dared us to say we're too hip to fall for tricks that are older than we are. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Brimming with humor and heartbreak, Slumdog Millionaire meets at the border of art and commerce and lets one flow into the other as if that were the natural order of things. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Slumdog Millionaire is nothing if not an enjoyably far-fetched piece of rags-to-riches wish fulfillment. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter |

    What's perhaps most fascinating about the film is Boyle's relentless focus on the realities of present-day India as a vehicle for his spectacle and laughs. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    In the end, what gives me reluctant pause about this bright, cheery, hard-to-resist movie is that its joyfulness feels more like a filmmaker's calculation than an honest cry from the heart about the human spirit (or, better yet, a moral tale). Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Doesn't hit its stride until the last 30 minutes, and by then, it's just a little too late. Read full review

View more reviews for Slumdog Millionaire on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Epic romance-drama is brilliant but too mature for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that despite incidents of violence and cruelty, this is a sweeping, thrilling drama that mature teens will be able to take -- and will probably very much enjoy. There's some extreme violence -- electrocution, murder, and violence perpetrated by, and on, young children -- but it never feels exploitatitive or simplistic. The film revolve around issues of class (how could a poor "slumdog" like the lead character possibly do so well on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?). and includes many images of modern India, including real -- but still hard-to-take -- depictions of poverty and hopelessness.
  • Families can talk about the nature of Indian society -- from class to religious conflict to the nation's role as a growing economic superpower -- and about the way the film depicts hard work, good morals, and quick wits. Are they seen as virtues?
  • Discuss the film's depiction of the differences -- and similarities -- between Indian culture and American culture. How are they different? What do they have in common?
  • What does the movie say about the growing process of globalization? What does it mean when British customer service calls are answered in India? Or when an English game show becomes immensely popular in a completely different nation?
The good stuff
  • message true1 Positive messages:  Modern-day India is depicted as a complex, rich culture of wonderful opportunity and yet terrifying poverty. Police forces are depicted as brutal, but they ultimately do the right thing. Criminal, greedy, and venal behavior is depicted -- and not always punished.
  • rolemodels true4 Positive role models: Through brains, principles, and decency, the lead character achieves in the face of poverty, prejudice, and evil.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Strong violence; the lead character is beaten, drowned, and electrically shocked by authorities in order to elicit a confession; a depiction of a religious riot includes beatings, on-screen deaths, and men being set ablaze. A young child shoots a man in a clear kill-or-be-killed situation. A young boy is blinded with hot oil to increase his value as a beggar. A woman's face is deliberately scarred with a knife. Fist fighting and other shooting deaths.
  • sex false3 Sex: A supporting character is being taught courtesan's skills before being sold into sex slavery (at a high price due to her status as a virgin); some kissing; implied semi-sexual activity between a pre-teen boy and girl. Non-sexual nudity (a child's buttocks are seen).
  • language false3 Language: Strong, including "s--t," "hell," "damn," "crap," "piss," "bugger," "p---y," and non-sexual uses of "f---ing."
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: The plot revolves around the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false4 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Constant smoking; characters (in some cases even very young children) drink hard liquor.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

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