Millions | Review

Boyle trades painful grimaces for bright smiley faces.

The last time this Brit filmmaker gave viewers a youngster and a bag of loot combo audiences came away with hangover-like images of demented babies dancing on ceilings and the most nightmarish relationship between mankind and money. Thankfully, the waist-high characters in Danny Boyle’s modestly magical Millions have a very healthy rapport with the British pound, and cynical, unsuspecting older viewers will feel like their green was money well spent.

Scripter Frank Cottrell Boyce explores the type of world where Santa Clause or Saint Nick as some call him is as real as the possibility of hard currency falling from the sky. Plunging viewers into the p.o.v of the film’s freckled protagonist, the young, not-yet-corrupted Damian (Alexander Nathan Etel) sprinkles the charm – his bright one-on-one encounters with an index of saints are lively little sequences that reaffirm that lost spirit of giving and believing that most grown-ups have lost along the way. Sincere without being too mushy, honest without being too morally-driven, Boyle strikes the right balance providing imperfect characters as with the widowed father (James Nesbitt – Bloody Sunday) and the real-estate savvy older brother with a good versus evil relationship with money is perfectly sane within a materialistic society.

As with 28 Days Later, the absence of Americanized accents proves that sticking to scaled-down economics and more local and less mainstream aspirations allows the story to filter and flourish through. Boyle’s homespun piece merges the curiosity, wonder and surprise of childhood and the director’s frenzied style actually translates well – his fun visual snacks provide the same amusement for the Harry Potter crowd. One item working best in this film is that it remains confidently within character; this film never talks down towards its characters and steers clear of over sentimentality, even in the film’s final resting stop is well-intentioned and passable within the theme of imagination.

From one of the unlikeliest of sources comes a pleasing family film, much like Finding Neverland, Millions represents the alternative in an age where animation leads the field for family-viewings. The strength of a good director is his ability to adapt other people’s material into a well-rounded filmic experience, the sign of a great director is in his ability to switch gears, – Boyle shows that his high-octane style and comic tone can be surprisingly transferable in more “humble” projects.

Rating 3 stars