Review of Millions (2005) by Lady D — 19 Jul 2008

Millions (2004).

Directed by Danny Boyle.

Starring Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan«Damian Cunningham: [voiceover] The French have said au revoir to the franc, the Germans have said auf wiedersehen to the mark, and the Portuguese have said... whatever to their thing.» Millions tells the story of 7-year-old Damian, whose family moves to the suburbs of Manchester after the death of his mother. Soon after the move, Damian's "hermitage" is obliterated by a bag of money flung from a passing train. Damian immediately shows the money to his brother, Anthony, and the two begin thinking of what to do with it. Anthony, the selfish one, wants the money only for himself and his entertainment. Damian, the kind-hearted and religious of the two, had recently overheard three Latter Day Saint missionaries lecture other members of the community on building foundations of rock rather than foundations of sand, an old Christian principle which dictates that self-worth should be based on spirituality rather than worldly things like money and wealth. The lecture inspires Damian, who is particularly enamoured with the missionaries because of the name of their church; Damian is obsessed with saints, studying their biographies and even seeing them in his day-to-day activities as visions. He immediately begins looking for ways to give his share of the money to the poor. Very underrated and really unknown, but in fact this film is a real gem. The story is perfect, the acting is great and I really loved the idea that we were meant to receive after we have seen this movie. It's a typical family film; two boys find a box of money and they both are trying to spend the money, each their own way. The older one spends it on sweets, cloth and many other different items. The younger one though is a typical dreamer; he believes in god, he prays, he studies bible and he reads about all the different missionaries. He also has a really good imagination; he always seems to talk to different people who in fact, do not exist. So as he receives the money, he decides to give it to the poor ones. But who are the poor ones these days? Obviously, that the young kid like him has no idea what poor people look like and basically, he follows his own mind and gives out the money to everyone who he thinks would really need them. Typically, if any of us would have received this kind of money, we would have probably spent it on every single thing we wished for at this point of our life. This movie lets us see our imagination transfer into reality of this film, some of us will find the stuff that kids buying absolutely ridiculous, but some of us will often smile when they see what kids purchased or how they spend it. This film tells us what's right and what's wrong, why money is so important in our lives and why we usually spend something that by accident becomes ours, but in fact it wasn't earned by us in the first place. The scene before the very last one is very sad, yet beautiful. It shows that someone who has absolutely no idea what money can make to people decides to leave them out of his own life. It makes us think: is money really that important? Yes, today's world depends on money, but there are much more important things in this world such as: love, family, and happiness. If you can be happy with no money in your life, you are indeed a very lucky person. Truth is though, that there is hardly anybody that is happy in this world, even with money in their lives, not talking about people without them. Alex Etel is amazing as Damian Cunningham. He really is a very young and talented actor and I absolutely loved his performance in this film. Lewis McGibbon plays his older brother, and he also does really well. James Nesbitt and Daisy Donovan played a perfect couple. Nesbitt is great as Damian's father Ronnie. He is a natural actor and he looks really experienced. Daisy Donovan is also good and she is kind of funny when she first appears in Damian's school. This film is not that famous I must admit, but if you get hold of it, you will be really surprised when you see it because it shows us a very good example of something, that we should never forget. Review Date: 4th of May, 2008.