Rio Grande Herald Movie Critic:
Gerald Salinas

What is the American dream? Easy, becoming a millionaire. But it's not just the American dream, but also the dream of every person in the world; especially for a slumdog.

Slumdog Millionaire is an extraordinary movie, that not only show you, but takes you into the life of everyday India. And it is not pretty. The only movie I can recall doing that, is "City of God". But Slumdog Millionaire does it better and although not as graphic, this is visually more effective.

Slumdog tells the lives on two brothers, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), and older brother Salim Malik (Madhur Mittal). With the movie flashing back to Jamal's childhood poverty life and present, sitting in a televised stage of an India version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Jamal, answering every question giving to him correctly, has begun to inspire a nation, going from rags to riches, and suspicion from the inside people of the game show itself.

Jamal knows these answers from his violent, brutal and dark childhood. Witnessing the murder of his mother, growing up as a petty thief, hustling tourist and meeting the love of his life Latika (Freida Pinto). His older brother Salim is the more aggressive type, learning from the underworld streets of Mumbai and accepting his role in it. Jamal never accepting his life, desires only one thing; Latika. And will go to great length to show it.

Slumdog is a movie for the ages. But give credit where credit is due, Danny Boyle made this movie the phenomenon that it is, his dramatically visual effects, just amaze you with inside beauty revealed. With the moving soundtrack of the movie, suitable for the fast pace editing. Danny Boyle's great challenge to tell and direct this story is incredible.

What amazes me the most, is underneath it all, this is a great love story. Yes this movie is graphic not intended for kids, but for the rest of us, shows what love can really do and how much it can inspire us all. I can't go on enough about Danny Boyle on how he visually told this incredible story, just take my word on it.

Slumdog Millionaire gets it right on everything, deserving winning the Oscars, yes other films I feel had a good chance of taking the grand prize, but this was no let down. This is a can't miss movie, that deserves your viewing.