Slumdog Millionaire is pretty much the best movie of 2008, somewhere Clint Eastwood is crying

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India¹s "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show¹s questions.

Each chapter of Jamal¹s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show¹s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?

When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out.

Danny Boyle is kind of crazy in a good way, I'd say. While his earlier works were hit and miss, not even the well received Trainspotting or 28 Days Later garnered the acclaim Slumdog Millionaire, his latest effort about a boy who makes it from rags to riches on India's variant of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, has racked up this awards season. The cast is extremely talented and likeable and the score for the film adds perfectly to its excitement. There are several reasons the film will probably win best picture, so let's discuss.

First and foremost, Slumdog is excellent because it is both timely and timeless. Incorporating India and its globalizing economy as its setting, the country's beautiful landscapes capture the attention of the audience and show just how small the children are in the scheme of things.The film's story chronicles Jamal Malik and his traumatic childhood filled with religious riots and ridiculous amounts of loss and misfortune, to his place on a popular game show's hotseat. The universal ideas of overcoming obstacles and the value of a person's experience are portrayed brilliantly in the film. I can't say that the performances in the film are absolutely fantastic (Patel is a bit one-dimensional and Pinto is fine for what Beaufoy gave her to work with), but they do what they have to do, and that's engaging the audience into a hearthwrenching story. Not too difficult considering the script, but the editing and score are just as impressive and integral. Many critics have knocked the film for being unrealistic, complaining that a boy with no formal education could never fair as well as Jamal did on the popular triva show. I can't say I share their sentiment; movies are almost never believable if you look closely enough, and besides, I'm not sure Boyle or his crew intended for Slumdog to be a work of cinematic realism. It's all about what's behind the plot here, and it's obvious from the reactions of audiences worldwide and the majority of Hollywood's critics that the movie epitomizes effective storytelling.

Another reason the film has done so well is because it's a visual masterpiece. Like directors Wes Anderson and Chris Smith, Boyle utilizes his setting to help tell the story. Chris Dickens is the edtior of the film and his work is fantastically seamless and full of adrenaline. The opening scene where Jamal and his brother run through the slums of Mumbai contends with The Dark Knight and Iron Man and may even get the best of them at times. The score for the film already won a Golden Globe and will probably take another honor at the Oscars. It's diverse and climactic, a vital asset to the movie's pacing. M.I.A contributes to a handful of songs and her rough and tough sound meshes perfectly with what the audience sees. I'm bummed she won't be performing at the Oscars on account of her first baby popping out anytime now, but I have to say that knowing Miley Cyrus' has no chance of winning an Academy Award for Best Original song makes up for it and then some (dear God, i'm sure it's only a matter of time...).

Anyway, it's all the little things that add up big for Slumdog. A lot of movies these days, several of them being Oscar contenders, rely on that one thing to sell their film (Anne Hathway in Rachel Getting Married, Kate Winslet in The Reader, Meryl in Doubt, the overhyped animatronics in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, etc etc). Yeah, yeah, I'm aware there are a few assisting elements that push those films onward and upward, but none of them are an especially well-rounded final product like Slumdog. Is the movie a crowd pleaser? Yes. But remember, in order to be considered so, you've gotta actually please, and boy does this film.