I have to confess that Slumdog Millionaire is the only one of the Oscar nominees I have actually seen (and that’s only because Mr. B. happened to have heard the original book on radio and was eager to see the film version). Still I’m sure that this low budget and visually entrancing Brit offering was a worthy winner amongst the more predictable Hollywood fare. The casting is excellent and the portrayal of Mumbai fascinating , but I did have a quibble with the film as a whole. The first half has some gut-wrenching scenes of child exploitation. By contrast the ending is unashamedly feel-good. I wasn’t sure that the two parts actually went together – a film, I suppose of two halves? And how were the happy couple going to find happiness when affluence was shown to be potentially as ugly poverty? Or am I being picky?
Meanwhile, commiserations to the unlucky losers of University Challenge. Manchester were truly brilliant (even getting the one about Obama being a Latin verb backwards – the ultimate useless fact – how cool is that !) but simply ‘peaked too soon’ allowing Corpus Christi to romp home as predicted. I’m now hoping for a new phenomenon known as the Trimble effect. This will lead to it being perfectly acceptable for girls (or anyone) to be jaw-droppingly knowledgeable – and to a renaissance in the study of Latin.
If you haven’t had enough of the current quiz phenomenon, I recommend a night in with Starter for Ten with the excellent James MacAvoy or, even better, an old(ish) film called Quiz Show which is really engrossing and did a lot to enhance my knowledge of Belgian history.
BTW I gave up any ambitions to be on a quiz show after failing to make the school team for Top of The Form. (Radio version – lol!)
Ali Bacon, Author 