Written in Stone

Excuse the cliché. If you are going to see one movie this year, let that movie be “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Danny Boyle’s twentieth effort in the director’s chair has produced a beautifully shot film, deep in meaning and accompanied by an exceptional soundtrack.

If you have seen the televised trailers, you might think it is merely the story of an impoverished Indian teen getting a chance to win a lot of money and pull his loved ones out of poverty.





This promise of a simple story line may be an effort to get game show weaned middle Americans into the theatres. However, this film is anything but simple.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is based on the book “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup, and a skillfully written screen adaptation by Simon Beaufoy . In fact, one of the most amazing things about the film is its structure.

The film opens as the protagonist (Jamal Malik) finds himself one question away from 20,000,000 Rupees on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”.




The question posed to the film’s audience is “How did he do it?”

A) He Cheated
B) He’s Lucky
C) He’s a genius
D) It is written (Changed for the US trailer)

As the film continues, we are presented with a surprisingly disturbing tale of one young man’s life. It is a life that, unlike our own, is not filled with choices as much as obstacles and traumas that he must endure.

I think the idealistic message being conveyed here is that no matter how much pain one endures in one’s life, it all ends up having a divine purpose in the end. The hardship molds us. It shapes us. Perhaps into a new form that is needed later in life.

Some call it the grand plan. Some call it destiny.

This is by no means the first film to confront this issue. Strangely enough, “Cast Away” is on TNT as I write this. It contains a similar message, but in a different package.




The moral of Slumdog is essentially a nice one. It suggests that although the path may be littered with painful shards of glass, our fate is predestined and our endurance will be rewarded.

As I get older, I feel like the idealism of my youth gets covered over by callous layers of realism. My visions of what should be are often crushed by what is.

Are we drifting down a river controlled by its current making futile efforts to steer ourselves, or do we unknowingly travel on a rigid set of rails?




As times goes on, I am repeatedly amazed by my inability to predict the future, but I can say with absolute certainty that this year the Oscar for best picture will go to “Slumdog Millionaire”.

After all … it is written.

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”

~ Jean de La Fontaine

Life in the numbers

Today, a great actor, a great philanthropist and a great man died.

His name was Paul Newman, and he was 83 years old.




After his only son died in 1978 from an accidental overdose of Valium, he established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The camp serves 13,000 children every year, free of charge.

Paul was passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights. He was famously liberal, and due to his active support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968, he ended up on President Nixon's enemies list. It was one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.

-19 The position he held on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
-50 Major films
-10 Oscar nominations
-3 Oscar wins (Two honorary awards)
-5 BAFTA nominations
-1 BAFTA win
-30 Years of philanthropy
-200 Million raised for charity
-50 Years of marriage to a wonderful woman/actor Joanne Woodward

One of Paul Newman's last on-screen roles was for the 2005 HBO drama Empire Falls.

I was very sick at home when it first aired.

The story, the characters and his performance truly resonated for me.

And the loser is ...

(Drum roll please)

The 80th Academy Awards.




As it turned out, the really big story of the Academy Awards this year was Jennifer Garner "being groped" by Gary Busey on the red carpet.

I have never understood the Joan and Melissa Rivers red carpet BS.

This is not Fashion Week. It is a film awards show.

Furthermore ... PLEASE get over yourself Jenn. I know animal actors that have more range than you.

Despite all the stupidity outside the theatre, perhaps the greatest moments of idiocy came during the show itself.

A) Firstly, Miley Cyrus is not a film professional and therefore should not be a presenter. We all know why she was invited, but apparently it didn't work since this was the smallest television audience in the show's 80 year history. It turns out that the presence of Heidi Klum and Sean Combs didn't help much either.

B) If you are going to do a montage of past Oscar hosts ... you might want to include all of them.




C) Add to that ... actor Brad Renfro was noticeably left out of the Academy Awards "in memoriam" tribute to Hollywood figures who died in the past year. Why? ... Because he died of drugs?
God knows that has never happened in Hollywood before.

An Academy spokeswoman said: ""Unfortunately, there isn't enough room to include everyone."

A life is worth three seconds, bitch ... three damn seconds.

D) Then, what really killed me was that there was absolutely no mention of Roy Schieder's recent tragic death.

Not only was he an amazing actor, but he was a part of some of the most important films of all time.

"Jaws"
"All That Jazz"
"The French Connection"
"Marathon Man".

Fortunately, someone cut this nice tribute together on www.youtube.com.