Millions
Dir. Danny Boyle
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
It’s ‘grim up north’ for two young brothers who have lost their mother - Damian (Alex Etel) a young philanthropist who is often visited by various saints and his older brother Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) who is more worldly wise…
That is until one day when ‘God’ sends them a Nike bag overflowing stuffed with almost £300,000 in cash… The only drawback being that the cash is in British pounds and there are only a few days left that it will be legal tender as the Bank of England is about to condemn us Brits to the European ‘Euro’. This is a case of use it or lose it…
Has the bag of cash from above really been sent as a gift from heaven to help the poor? How many mates can you buy at school when you’re absolutely loaded? What are a couple of young lads to do with more money than they can carry? And perhaps most pertinently… just who is that very dodgy looking dangerous character that seems to know that there is a bag of money around?
Millions could be seen as a children’s version of Boyle's first film ‘Shallow Grave’, which also looked at human behaviour in the face of mucho ill gotten cash. Millions certainly doesn’t have the gut wrenching violence of Shallow Grave but it retains the elements of fun, greed, danger and bewilderment and is just as watchable.
You just know trouble is on the way when the boys make a hefty £1000 donation to a school charity. Their generosity brings all sorts of unwanted attention and their dad (James Nesbitt) gets handily romantically linked to charity worker (Daisy ‘Spaced’ Donovan). The adults here are really bit players though as it is the two brothers who make this film work so well...
Sweet enough without being saccharine, Millions is an enjoyable fable that I’d strongly recommend.
Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):
Action öö – some chasing about - madcap
Laughs öööö – wry, well observed humour...
Horror ö – tense moments but nothing horrific
Babes ö – not much eye candy
Overall ööö1/2 (perfect film to chill to for grown up kids everywhere)
Darkmatters: H O M E
4 comments:
Millions was great. Saw it in the theatre and then purchased it as soon as it came out on DVD.
I love the way the saints play into the story and really enjoy the way that part of the show is filmed.
I loved this film and I definitely agree with the previous comment about the "saints" scenes. These were some of the best in the movie.
I think the woman you watched it with was eye candy enough....
i thought this film was really good, and what made it better is that the older child has the exact same name as me.
Anthony Cunningham
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