An almost ridiculously ebullient Bollywood-meets-Hollywood concoction--and one of the rare "feel-good" movies that actually makes you feel good, as opposed to merely jerked around.
The result is magical and life affirming, and will enrapture those who are not scared away by the mention of "subtitles."
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Rolling StonePeter 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.
80
Film Threat
Film Threat
Absolutely perfect family entertainment for anyone over the age of ten. It is a celebration of not just the usual triumph of the human spirit, but a celebration of the human experience.
80
TimeRichard Corliss
TimeRichard Corliss
Despite its elements of brutality, this is a buoyant hymn to life, and a movie to celebrate.
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
It's a stunner.
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Slumdog Millionaire is nothing if not an enjoyably far-fetched piece of rags-to-riches wish fulfillment.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
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.
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, Slumdog Millionaire is a blast.
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).