The Films Of Danny Boyle - Part 2

Partial Education Presents

The Films of Danny Boyle - Part 2

Featuring Partially Educated Review of

Millions

Sunshine

Slumdog Millionaire

127 Hours

and Trance

Many directors have tried to steer into family friendly territory and quite often this ends very badly for them. It seems an area where the biggest successes are those who make their name within that area of film. This cannot be said of Millions, Danny Boyle's sole family film. Set in an England that is about to convert to the Euro (yeah, that bit doesn't quite work anymore), brothers Damian (Alex Etel) and Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) come across a bag filled with a lot of money (though not millions). After taking the bag home, Anthony goes down the buying things for himself route, while Damian wants to use the money to help the poor. With both keeping it a secret from their father (James Nesbitt), their actions gradually bring them to the attention of the thief that was meant to be taking the money in the first place. The boys have recently lost their mother and, thankfully, this plot strand doesn't give us the usual histrionics. Most of the time it's mentioned when they use her death to blag free sweets. It's a vital element though, as her death is the major dictator of their actions. Where Anthony is trying to fill the void with material goods, Damian's own faith leads him towards Christian values. The first thing to say is that it's refreshing to see a film which actually shows us the positivity that can come from religion. I am not religious and hate getting into debates like this, but the more common and easier approach is to go for the negative anti-religion vibe, often leading to the intolerable argument that all religion creates nothing more than evil acts and excuses for stupid people. I'm not denying there isn't that side, I'm adamant that there's the other side, because I've seen it. The other great thing about the film is that it never feels like it's vilifying Anthony. His actions may not be as kind and generous as Damian's, but he represents the thing that most young boys would do and it never judges him for this, instead looking to understand him. Sadly, the ending loses it a little bit. It's all a bit messy and gets incredibly saccharine at one notable point. It's not a film where you're going to get abject misery and nor should you, but it could have been toned down a bit for my liking. This is forgivable when placed with the rest of the film though. Millions is probably the least known of Boyle's films, but that's far from any indication of it's quality.

FOUR out of five

Millions must have been a complete ventilation of all of Boyle's positivity, because the first thing to be said about Sunshine is that it's every bit as miserable as it is fantastic (and I adore this film). The Sun is dying and a group of astronauts pilot a craft that is carrying a huge bomb that stands as Earth's second and last attempt to give it a kickstart. With their long journey bringing them close to their final destination, we join them at the vital part of their mission, when tensions have burst forth and the stakes are about to reach their highest point. Sunshine has proven to be a hugely polarising film with audiences, so if the idea of someone unleashing a torrent of praise towards it angers you, I suggest you move onto the next review. This, for me, is Boyle's masterpiece. Everything meshes together to create a film which stands with the true pinnacles of sci-fi that also served to inspire it. The quest is a simple, but enormous one and represents a glorious conundrum, as these astronauts fight to save the thing that could destroy them in order to preserve their way of life. The outstanding cinematography and adrenalizing score help to create nearly 2 hours of pure tension, interspersed with brief, but effective, moments of pure beauty. The acting is also top notch without exception, so much so that I feel slightly mean singling anyone out, but I must bring attention to Chris Evans, who stands as the pinnacle in a group of actors demonstrating excellence. Now, there is a change of pace in the second half and this is often the source of people's ire. To say anything about it would be a spoiler, so I won't, but if you watch the film, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. As stakes rise even higher, Boyle throws something in there that pushes them to the absolute limit and brings real peril to the mission. Would it have still worked without that extra something? Probably yes, but I don't feel that it takes anything away from the film. It also leads to an incredibly brave ending that manages to pack the necessary emotional heft without a need to fall back on exploitative sentimentality. Any guesses on the score?

FIVE out of five

I kind of don't get Slumdog Millionaire. Or rather, I don't get why there was all this love and awards thrown at it. It's not that I think it's bad. It's that's I think it's good, rather than fantastic. Dev Patel plays Jamal Malik, who's got himself into a spot of bother after being accused of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. The film chronicles Patel's life from childhood through to the present day, showing how he accrued the knowledge that led to his suspicious success on the show. Cleverly enough, the film never actually tells you how far he got, we just know that he's done well. Now, where the film works is in it's depiction of life in a Mumbai slum and the necessary moves that must be made in order to get out of it. The performances from Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Jamal and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as his older brother Salim are some of the finest demonstrations of young acting that I can remember. They even serve to overshadow Patel's performance quite a bit. The film keeps flipping between those scenes and each question on …Millionaire and this becomes a little repetetive from time to time, serving to provide the film with a very episodic feel that doesn't complement it all that well. Despite Anil Kapoor's fantastic performance as the Indian Chris Tarrant, I couldn't help but feel that the game show wasn't necessary. The story of Jamal's life would have been just as interesting without it. By the time we get to the last question that Patel faces, suspense is kind of spoiled. Why? Because we've guessed from an early stage that that will be one of the questions. I'm also willing to bet that the wait between his answer and the revelation of whether or not he's right is spoiled by the fact that most people will know whether he's got it right or not. This all leaves me feeling more negative towards Slumdog… because I went in to watch what was supposed to be one of the best films of 2008 and didn't feel like it was anywhere close to that. Still, ignoring that, and judging the film by itself...

THREE out of five

So, Aron Ralston is now a motivational speaker in America. I'm not 100% sure how this has come to be, as I would have thought his statement of "don't go rock climbing without someone knowing where you are, lest you wind up having to cut your own arm off" could just as easily be filed under the "don't be an idiot" rule. It shouldn't really need saying. Nonetheless, this is what Aron Ralston did and we can at least be grateful that it gave us a very good film. 127 Hours joins the small, but growing group of films which take place predominantly in one location with one trapped actor. The pinnacle of this genre is Buried, in which the torturous idea of spending 90 minutes of the sole company of Ryan Reynolds turned out to be far better than anyone could have ever guessed. 127 Hours is not as good as Buried, but it's close. In a technical sense, it's superior. Boyle isn't pretentious enough to believe that one man trying to get his arm out of a rock is going to hold our attention if it's played out fly-on-the-wall style. So, he's happy to let us delve into Ralston's mind. We see his memories, his dreams and his hallucinations which serve to give us not just a greater awareness of the high stakes, but a story of redemption when Ralston comes to realise the things he has taken for granted in his life. So much hinges on the performance in films like this and James Franco is really great in the role. Much like Reynolds, I'm not always the biggest fan of Franco, but this is some of (if not THE) best work he's ever done. The only reason why 127 Hours doesn't quite hit the heights of Buried lies in something it couldn't really help. You watch this film because, be it through morbid curiosity or a worrying gore fascination, you know you are going to see a man cut his own arm off. As a result, much of the great work is overshadowed by the constant bracing for when the moment finally comes. The moment pays off well, striking that perfect balance between what it does and what it doesn't show you, but it's a shame that, in the end, you spend a whole hour borderline ignoring everything else, in the rightfully agonising wait for the inevitable.

FOUR out of five

I don't think Danny Boyle was ever designed for the 'national treasure' status that he has been given. His incredible modesty and refusal to ever take as much credit as he probably should for his work in the Olympics are two reasons why, but also his films rarely feel designed for the mass embrace of the public. I mean that as high praise, as Boyle is nothing, if not a rebel. As such, Trance represents Boyle keeping that rebellion within him, rather than sitting back and basking in the nation's adulation. In that respect, Trance is refreshing. The film's theme of hypnosis allows Boyle to play around with his tricksy imagery and have a lot of fun doing it. As amnesiac art thief James McAvoy goes under hypnosis treatment to find the piece of art that he has hidden from another thief (Vincent Cassel), we delve into a psyche of broken memories. The first two thirds of the film are intriguing enough. You go with it, knowing that the gear is going to keep getting ramped up until a finale that you hope will bring together an exceptional thriller. McAvoy, Cassel and Rosario Dawson make for three excellent leads and you have every faith that this all going to come together brilliantly. Then the third act arrives. Instead of feeling like it's gone off the rails, it's as though the film has hypnotised you into believing that the rails were ever there to begin with. Trance's ending is so outright bonkers that you just can't buy into it and it deflates the film something rotten. It's not that there's necessarily plot-holes there, but when you're piling twist upon twist upon twist, there comes this point where you just can't logically accept it anymore. Instead of bringing things to an exciting close, it brings it all down to a point where you just feel that you've wasted your time. Trance is not an awful film and there is much to like, but I'd feel guilty recommending it because I know I'd be setting people up for disappointment. That can only be a problem.

TWO out of five

Sadly, this means I have ended my look at Danny Boyle's career so far, on a bit of a low. So, let's make things a bit more positive, shall we?

Next Time (20th November)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PARTIAL EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!