A reliable way for an esteemed director to prove his or her versatility is the 180 degree turn; sheer talent alone can only carry a career so far. Veterans notable for a distinct tendency suddenly shun it dramatically and flamboyantly refute any potential one-trick pony criticism.
Scottish/Irish director Danny Boyle is the latest auteur dabbling in unfamiliar territory, but his wholly enchanting children's flick \Millions"" is that unusual family movie propelled by boundless imagination and wit rather than condescending potty humor or a nonsensical trading card game.
""Millions"" is a fable about two eccentric brothers, 7-year-old Damian (Alex Etel) and 9-year-old Anthony (Lewis McGibbon), who move with their widower father (James Nesbitt) to a Liverpool housing development. On one of his routine excursions to his cardboard fort by the train tracks, Damian discovers a duffel bag containing somewhere around ??230,000 (not millions, but over $400 grand). Damian, a bright-eyed kid who enjoys talking to visions of saints, immediately ponders the blurry morals of the situation and elects to engage in philanthropy, but is beset by obstacles ranging from his capitalist-oriented brother, his father and his father's new charity-worker girlfriend, looming monetary conversion and the ominous ""owner"" of the loot (Christopher Fulford).
The gigantic windfall movie is an oft-told tale; one could reasonably assert that once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Revered classics like Frank Capra's ""Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"" set the standard emphasis on bountiful charity, while some more modern attempts focus on more flawed uses (the John Cusack flop ""Money for Nothing"").
While Boyle includes the typically joyous montages involving the protagonists frolicking in the mountains of dough or treating homeless guys to a pizza party, even these sequences feel organic and necessary. The stress is on the ecstatic sense of discovery and opportunity that comes with the abrupt acquisition of an obscene amount of money; thus, a sequence with Damian and Alexander playing Jenga with stacks of bills accompanied by sunny British pop music feels delightful rather than irritatingly contrived.
Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce has crafted a vivid, punchy tale with intelligence to match its whimsicality. Boyce is foremost concerned with the religious and moralistic pitfalls that complicate his story, and instead of dismissing these issues, he chooses to explore them primarily through Damian's character.
With McGibbon and especially Etel, Boyce and Boyle have found child actors that aren't stiflingly, self-consciously cutesy, nor bungling, obnoxious brats-these young actors bring gravity and conviction to their roles and never stoop to mugging. The cast as a whole is as impressive as any Boyle has commanded in the last ten years.
""Millions"" is also as vibrant and energetic as anything Boyle has directed; the film may be devoid of heroin-craving sociopaths or bloodthirsty zombies, but it doesn't lack his visceral urgency. Boyle isn't afraid to inject darkness into this lighthearted romp. He creates an appropriate sense of foreboding in regard to the shady villain and stages a thrilling train robbery with aplomb.
However, he invests most of his energy into depicting the bouncy adventures of his little rascals. ""Millions"" is saturated with flamboyantly gorgeous color and rife with familiar Boyle themes like ethereal visitations (""A Life Less Ordinary"") and the giddy lack of societal restrictions (the grocery store shopping spree in ""28 Days Later"").
In fact, ""Millions"" is a logical extension of Boyle's oeuvre rather than a purely strategic deviation-whereas David Lynch's G-rated ""The Straight Story"" was an intriguing curiosity piece that nonetheless had us hungering for another ""Blue Velvet,"" Boyle adapts his creativity to new heights and, despite its third act's encroaching sentimentality, crafts a film worthy of comparison to ""28 Days Later"" and ""Trainspotting.\
