From the director of the twisted black comedy "Trainspotting" and the chilling zombie thriller "28 Days Later" comes... this delightfully charming fable that's fun for the whole family. Jeez, I knew that by 2004, Danny Boyle was coming into his own as a… More
From the director of the twisted black comedy "Trainspotting" and the chilling zombie thriller "28 Days Later" comes... this delightfully charming fable that's fun for the whole family. Jeez, I knew that by 2004, Danny Boyle was coming into his own as a versatile director, but this is quite the extreme jump in tone. Now that I think about it, this film does pretty much mark Danny Boyle's finally completing his entrance into new beginnings, not just because this film's genre is pretty different from what he's used to, but because, with this film, Boyle has finally gotten rid of all of the collaborators who had been sticking with him since "Shallow Grave". Yup, Andrew Macdonald has finally gotten off of Danny Boyle's back as producer, - which must be a relief to Boyle, because without that pesky Scot breathing down his neck, he can now make his films as English as he wants, or in this film's case, as English as possible - but hey, there's still 2007's "Sunshine", so don't worry too much kids, because Macdonald will be back, just like the rest of them... with the exception of cinematographer Brian Tufano, editor Masahiro Hirakubo, writer John Hodge and Ewan McGregor... which is pretty much everyone Boyle worked with in "Shallow Grave" who stuck with him, or at least for so long. Wow, it would appear as though Danny Boyle is not very good at holding on to friends, but hey, I'd imagine he doesn't mind too much, seeing as how that doesn't stop him from recieving critical acclaim and his own couple "millions". Lord knows that I don't mind that Boyle has new buddies, just as long as someone helps Boyle get his films made, because, whether they're delightful family films or hardcore thrillers, ol' Danny Boy...le makes some good movies. Still, as good as this film is, its fortunes go a bit squandered by quite a few factors.
An unexpected and major blow to this film is emotional distance, and more of it than there should be, as you all too often find yourself suspended from this world, not just because this film is so blasted British that its dialect has to be borderline alien to even a good couple of English people (I'm serious y'all, you've got to see this film to believe how far over the top Danny Boyle will go when it comes to embracing his culture without his Scottish friends making him take some doggone retraints), but because of, well, quite a few things, including, of all things, overstylizing. Danny Boyle has always had a distinctly lively style, but in relatively recent years, he has been looking into experiments to expand on that livliness, which is great and all, and certainly makes this film a striking one, though it was only a matter of time before Boyle got a bit too carried away with his experiments, and sure enough, this film gets to be exhaustingly overwhelming with its strange, almost surrealistically overly lively imagery and other overly colorful stylistic choices, to the point of drowning out substance with style and leaving the film to lose your investment a bit. I suppose you get used to the frenetic style, - overbearing though, it may get to be - and plus, the style only goes too far over the top here and there, yet nevertheless just enough to give this film a kind of exhausting freneticism that both wears some of your investment thin and exacerbates the film's cheesiness. Now, the film isn't exactly ceaselessly cheesy, yet things do get to be a bit corny, whether it be the film's getting to be a bit too kiddy for its own good or even quite a bit of sentimentality that dilutes this film's bite a bit further. Still, in the end, what intensifies the aforementioned faults and, of course, hurts the film the most is the film's limitation in subtlety, for although the film has plenty of depth, and just enough to compensate for many of its storytelling faults, it isn't as graceful as it should be in its delivery of its worthy themes - which are sometimes dicomfortingly glaring (Oh "lord", the religious overtones) - and messages, - which tend to knock you clean over the head - nor is it as comfortable in flow as it should be when it comes to unraveling the story, which sadly comes out as rather predictable and, as I said, often a touch distant. The film isn't quite as consistently flawed as I make it sound, yet it does make many a mistake, being overstylized, a bit cheesy and altogether not as subtle as it should be, thus making for a rocky final product that, in the hands of a lesser director, would have collapsed as underwhelming. As things stand, however, Danny Boyle delivers much more often than not, and as well as you would expect him to, for although Boyle makes a couple of mistakes and fails to compensate for some of the mistakes within Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, the film ultimately emerges as rewarding, boosted by the many things that Boyle and his buddies do, in fact, do well, and quite well indeed, including the very style that damages this film at times.
As I said, many of the stylistic choices get to be too much in their freneticism and being perhaps too colorful, yet on the whole, the style wins you over with its being so colorful and imaginative, as well as unique and dynamic enough for you to find yourself eager to see what crazy stylistic choice will pop out of Danny Boyle's imagination, for although the imagery and storytelling style gets to be overbearing at times, it's generally quite neat and fun, and certainly complimented by the film's fine visual style. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle returns to Danny Boyle's side for the first of many times to stun once again with his photographic tastes, setting up many a uniquely and attractively slick shot that places you in this world dazzlingly, and with Mantle recieving the much more high quality cameras that he should have had in "28 Days Later", you better believe his lighting and color choices have justice done unto them, and come out often handsome, sometimes striking and occasionally radiant. Also returning for the first of many times, editor Chris Gill, while perhaps - nay - decidedly no Masahiro Hirakubo, still gets to show off his skill more than he did in "28 Days Later", and oh, what skill it is, for although Gill's editing gets to be a bit to frantic and supplementary to the overbearingness of the style, it's mostly supplementary to the livliness of the style, being snappy and clever in its tight quickness. Danny Boyle has always been nothing if not exceedingly stylish, so to call this one of his most stylish films to date is really saying something, and sure enough, this film is so very excessively stylish, sometimes to an overbearing state, though primarily to a dazzling state, which isn't to say that the film's stylistic sharpness ends on a visual level, as the film also makes for quite the audible style piece, not just because of its clever and sharp sound design, but because of its soundtrack, which is one of your better ones from the Danny Boyle music collection, ranging from as high as quite good to as low as still pretty decent, yet always being cleverly blended into the context of the film to where it livens things up and makes the film both more entertaining and atmospherically effective, which is what you can say about John Murphy's score, which never falls beneath truly upstanding, having a very Burton-Elfman-like magic and sound to it, married with Murphy's near-signature flashiness and grandness, as well as considerable dynamicity and playfulness, thus making for yet another brilliantly unique, dynamic, effective and all around lovely effort by the great Mr. John Murphy. Boyle's style captures his vision of a fantastic imagination projected in the midst of reality, being flashy yet generally down to earth enough to keep you going, yet when it's all said and done, it's Danny Boyle's storytelling that saves this film from underwhelmingness and makes it genuinely rewarding, for although Boyle can't fully drown out of the sentimentality and nonsubtlety within Frank Cottrell Boyce's script, what he generally accomplishes both through and even with the faults within the screenplay really does keep you going. As much as I complain about Boyce's screenplay, it hits quite a bit more often than it misses, having its faults, only to turn around and come up with something genuine and clever, and brought to life by Boyle's inspired atmosphere, which does justice to the more genuine spots in Boyce's (Hold on a second; Boyle and Boyce, I just got that) screenplay, while sometimes cutting through, if not occasionally even embracing the sentimentality and nonsubtelty with enough grace and depth to create genuineness, and with it, emotional resonance and effectiveness. There's not quite enough of that going around for the final product's security above simply average to be all that firm, yet it remains there enough to keep you more invested than distanced, and with Boyle delivering just as potently yet much more thoroughly on entertainment value and style, the film's worthy story goes brought to life with enough inspiration to satisfy both the youth and adults.
In conclusion, the film has a certain distance to it at point, whether it be because of exhausting overstylizing or major missteps in Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay, which often gets to be a bit too cheesy and unsubtle for its own good, thus making for a fluff piece that almost flattens out to underwhelming, yet ultimately transcends that, going greatly supported by stellar style and thorough entertainment value, and secured as rewarding by Danny Boyle's inspired storytelling, which either celebrates what genuineness there is within Boyce's screenplay or forms genuineness through, if not from Boyce's missteps, thus making for general atmospheric effectiveness that helps in making "Millions" a charmingly stylish and entertaining and ultimately rewarding effort by Danny Boyle.
3/5 - Good
