MILLIONS (2005) - "LIVING FOR THE BOYLE" SERIES

Welcome to the LIVING FOR THE BOYLE review series!  Daniel Francis Boyle originally hailed from Manchester, England and his filmmaking career took off thirty years ago in 1995 with the release of acclaimed cult thriller Shallow Grave.  And ever since then, Danny Boyle (as he’s officially known) has carved out a uniquely successful career not only achieving box office success several times but also winning a few Oscars along the way.  During this time period, he has also become one of MY personal favorite directors, having helmed excellent ORIGINAL stories spanning several genres including children’s fantasy, science fiction, crime drama, horror, and biopic.  Over the next few months, I will be reviewing some of my favorite entries from his filmography in the lead-up to the long-awaited sequel to one of his more successful films….28 Years Later which will be released in the U.S. on June 20!

Once Upon A Time, the edgy director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later decided to make a different type of movie....a FAMILY movie. :) It's a touching story about a recently widowed father (James Nesbitt) who moves his two young sons to the suburbs....when one day, his youngest son Damian (Alex Etel) suddenly discovers in their backyard.....a bag filled with cash!  A LOT of cash no doubt so Damian and his brother (Lewis McGibbon) embark on their own adventure trying to figure out EXACTLY what to do this with this new-found fortune....and what results is a delightful whimsical story involving (among many different things) the transition to the Euro, Mormon neighbors who can transport a LOT of appliances via bicycle, and one of our heroes getting to know all of the most well-known Catholic saints.  It's a true original.   

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

https://livingforthecinema.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/

Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/

Transcript

“Living for the Boyle” Series:

Welcome to the Living for the BOYLE series.  Daniel Francis Boyle originally hailed from Manchester, England and his filmmaking career took off thirty years ago in 1995 with the release of acclaimed cult thriller Shallow Grave.  And ever since then, Danny Boyle (as he’s officially known) has carved out a uniquely successful career not only achieving box office success several times but also winning a few Oscars along the way.  During this time period, he has also become one of MY personal favorite directors, having helmed excellent ORIGINAL stories spanning several genres including children’s fantasy, science fiction, crime drama, horror, and biopic.  Over the next few months, I will be reviewing some of my favorite entries from his filmography in the lead-up to the long-awaited sequel to one of his more successful films….28 Years Later which will be released in the U.S. on June 20!  (Music playing over)

MILLIONS – 2005 Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Christopher Fulford, Enzo Cilenti, Alun Armstrong, Mark Chatterton, and Jane Hogarth

Genre: Family Comedy/Adventure (Audio clip)

Maybe this just had the ideal timing of one of the first films I got to see in theaters after my first daughter was born but I just have always ADORED this movie! Becoming a frequent moviegoer during the '90's in the post-Home Alone kiddie boom, I just found the whole "plucky youngster scheming and showing up the grown-ups" trope to be increasingly irritating....but give that kid a British accent and have him directed by Danny Boyle? I was 100% on board. ;) 

It also helped that this was just smack in the middle of a truly FANTASTIC genre-hopping run from Boyle in the early '00s....this was his children's fantasy follow-up to the zombie-revitalizing horror of 28 Days Later... THEN he did his own clever sci-fi spin on Event Horizon & 2001 with Sunshine....THEN he won a bunch of Oscars for the (now underrated?) aspirational drama Slumdog Millionaire....and then unlocking James Franco's appeal with the true-life survival story 127 Hours. I don't care what any one says...that's just an all-time run.

It also helps that he has a pitch-perfect cast of mostly lesser-known UK players each contributing a nice blend of cynicism and whimsy with their performances....This caught the grimacy James Nesbitt at just the right time, not long after his breakout in Bloody Sunday and the same year he played the beleaguered detective in Match Point. He's just SO matter-of-fact relatable as Ronnie, the recently widowed dad who's JUST trying to keep his head above water bringing two young boys to a new home in the suburbs. It's a Tom Hanks type-role from the '90's but played with virtually no sentimentality...Nesbitt's got the right face to sell a sad-sack who's REALLY trying to paint a smile over everything for his kids. 

Of course this ALL falls apart if you don't have the right talent in place to play the brothers who drive this story. Lewis McGibbon playing the older, more cynical Anthony does very well with a lot of tricky, often math-oriented dialogue. The whole premise of the movie basically kicks off when his younger, more naive brother Damian finds this mysterious bag FILLED with money bouncing off a railroad track near their backyard....Anthony only wants to parlay this money into making MORE money while also spending it on nifty new things for himself. Of course, his sweet-natured younger brother who is EXTREMELY well-versed on Catholic saints has other ideas - Damian genuinely believes that this money was a gift from God and HE wants to just use the money to do good, to help the poor. 

As played by the angel-faced (dotted with freckles too) Alex Etel, you just BUY it from this kid and it never feels cloying either! Alex was barely nine at the time of filming and while he's not exactly going for (nor achieving) the naturalism of a Hailey Joel Osment around this time, he's still a very compelling main protagonist. He's cute and plucky when he needs to be but never shamelessly mugging for the camera ESPECIALLY during a critical emotional scene towards the end which could have gone so badly if overplayed but he nails it by even underplaying at certain points....you're choking back tears watching this but at least you don't feel like you're being manipulated to do so. ;) 

The whole package still looks AND sounds great with some returning top-flight Boyle collaborators including DP Anthony Dodd Mantle...who knew that you could shoot a standard British subdivision this way, making it look SO lush? 😉 

BOYLE-ing Point (Over his 30 year career, Danny Boyle has not only proven adept at mastering a variety of genres but he also managed to leave his personal stamp EACH time…whether that be through casting, music, and/or shot selection.  This is THE signature moment within this film when it is most obvious that we are enjoying a Danny Boyle joint!):

Now if you were watching this movie for the first time and had no idea that it was directed by Danny Boyle….there has always been ONE standout sequence which blatantly reminds you and it occurs about forty minutes in.  It’s the HEIST sequence, a second-hand recollection from one of Anthony’s friends at school of what ACTUALLY caused this money to fly into the yard of our two young heroes. (Audio clip) 

With a fun early needle-drop from Muse playing overhead and some quick cutting, it’s a clever heist, right out of a Guy Ritchie OR Danny Boyle crime movie from that same era….at least ALLUDING to the potential for some genuine violence breaking out between police and soccer hooligans but of course never showing the violence as this WAS PG.  It’s by far the edgiest sequence in the movie and PURE Boyle, just more kid-friendly. (Audio clip) 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

With British composer John Murphy coming off of previous episode 28 Days Later with an all-time score, he returns to collaborate once again with Boyle….but THIS time delivering a seemingly Elfman-inspired more whimsical score infused with his own techno-leanings....it's never subtle but it works! (Audio clip)

Now I believe there are many who don't like the ending of this movie, which gets quite fanciful...and for the same reasons that a lot of folks didn't like the endings of Sunshine or 28 Days Later either. I get that there this is this widespread perception that even the better Danny Boyle films have "third act issues" but me personally, I have just never seen it that way. 🙄 I just LOVE the way this story concludes even if there is minimal set-up for it. It feels authentic to the spirit of the main protagonist Damian and yes it conveys a "message" but it's a damn GOOD message...it's a hopeful "Christian" message in the best sense of what that entails! And I'm saying that as a Jew no less. 🙂 And what helps it land SO well?  You guessed it….the right needle-drop.  I don’t want to give this away for folks who haven’t yet seen this but let’s just say that the music kicks in at JUST the right moment….after our main characters have made an unexpected journey. (Audio clip)  

And this choice of song….pretty unique but it’s just gorgeous and fits the scene perfectly.  It’s a catchy, mid-tempo choral number from The Children’s Choir of Elbosco…an one-off assembly of about 100 choir singers between the ages of 9 and 14, ALL hailing from Spain….and of course with instrumentation from a collection of very talented adult musicians.  Apparently this song was a sizeable worldwide hit back in 1995 but honestly, I never heard it until it closed out this movie in glorious fashion.  The song is titled, “Nirvana.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Now back to the cast…..another masterstroke was bringing in the adorable Daisy Donovan as the high-energy Dorothy, who serves as both a potential love interest for Ronnie and new mommy figure for the boys.  As she was mostly working at the time as a British comedienne (with the occasional screen credit) Daisy just brings a natural mad-cap sweetness to a role which on paper could have been just SO in-your-face face manic-pixie distracting…..ESPECIALLY if Boyle had likely followed studio notes to just cast the latest FHM-cover ingenue at the time instead. 😆 Now after seeing her in this, I had THOUGHT that Ms. Donovan was gonna be a big star ....or at least later that same year, the cable network TBS seemed to think so as I can remember there being HEAVY promotion of a new show on the network which she was both starring in and writing for….kind of a travel-comedy show which had her travelling around American….it was called “Daisy Does America.” (Audio clip)  

 And…..it was OK, she was winning and pretty funny….alas the show overall was not and didn’t last past its first season.  And since then, she’s been in the occasional British movie though nothing since 2013….I don’t know what happened to her but she leaves QUITE the impression here regardless. (Audio clip)   

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie): 

Now seeing as I’m often a sucker for often the most bombastic or frenetically edited scenes from movies of this time, I’m going to choose a quieter one, just two folks talking….though admittedly one of them is an angel, actually St Peter played by the ELITE British character actor Alun Armstrong. (Audio clip) 

Needless to say this scene - which occurs pretty much RIGHT after the heist sequence – is one of several throughout where we watch Damien apparently converse with various SAINTS….with them often recollecting stories from the bible.  It never feels heavy-handed or out of place either….and never less so with this utterly delightful recollection of the “loaves and fishes” story. Just a pitch-perfect scene which in lesser hands could have been “God’s Not Dead” levels of cringiness! (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film): 

No matter the genre – and with some admittedly MIXED results….cough cough….A Life Less Ordinary…..cough cough…Boyle has just always had a knack for bringing his own whiz-bang "Mad-chester" kinetic spin to EACH of these stories which had been there since Trainspotting: rapid-fire voice-over narration, magical realism in the strangest places usually involving household appliances, sinister characters lurching into the frame, and dazzling closing shots in freeze frames or slo-mo set to kicking needle-drops. And it's ALL here....PG-rated (most of his films are R-rated) mind you, delivering (with writer Frank Cottrell Boyce) a kid's fantasy with more edge than a Chris Columbus and with a tighter narrative than a Tim Burton.  For once again leaving his personal stamp on the whimsical family genre while also STILL delivering an excellent contribution to said genre, Danny Boyle is of COURSE the MVP. 

Final Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Happy Twentieth Anniversary to possibly Boyle’s most underrated film and STILL one of his best.  Also like I said….a genuinely good CHRISTIAN movie and just in time for Easter no less! 

Streaming on Prime Video

And that ends another MIRACULOUS review!