Tag Archives: Slumdog Millionaire

Hotel Mumbai (2019): Visceral Recreation

Based on the 2008 terrorist attacks in India, Hotal Mumbai follows several characters in the historic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a five-star, hundred year old lodging. Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) plays a waiter at the Taj who, after almost being sent home for not having the required clothing, finds himself caught in the center of a coordinated assault. Instead of escaping, he and several of the other hotel staff decide to stay to help evacuate the guests to safety, risking their own lives in the process. The film also follows a wealthy heiress (Nazanin Boniadi) and her American husband (Armie Hammer; The Social Network) staying at the hotel and shows the terrorists as they enter Mumbai and execute their plan.

Patel delivers mixed results as the lead but has a strong supporting cast to compensate. Patel’s blank face isn’t able to express the necessary gravity of the situation. Even in the tensest moments, he just seems vaguely confused and his expressions wouldn’t be out of place in a comedy. Fortunately, the cast that plays the rest of the Taj’s staff is up to the task. They appear determined and methodical, operating in the same well-structured unit they use for regular business, only with significantly higher stakes. Anupam Kher (The Big Sick) is stern but caring as the head chef and manager. He repeatedly shows his resourcefulness and resilience and he leads the frantic guests through significant danger and calmly confronts the daunting risks ahead. The remaining cast is hit or miss with Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs delivering mostly flat acting and the others having too little screen time to be memorable.

Patel’s expressions don’t match the danger of the situation.

Despite this being  his first feature, director Anthony Maras shows he has an eye for tension. He stages the horrific acts with a harsh, unstylized brutality that never veers into exploitation. The violence elicits shudders not cheers. His greatest asset is his ability to capture the terror of the unknown. Much of the film consists of characters hiding in the dark, afraid that the terrorists may enter their room. Maras maintains a breathless tension in these scenes by making use of offscreen space. We hear the knocks on guest rooms followed by screams and gunshots and, like with the shaking water cups from Jurassic Park, we know something bad is coming.

Hotel Mumbai’s major flaw is its message, or rather, its lack thereof. Many films have taken real life events and turned them into dramas, but Maras’s picture doesn’t appear to offer any particular insight. He partially avoids the mistake of taking a tragedy and focusing on a few visiting Americans instead of the locals who suffered in greater numbers. Thankfully, the hotel’s team is shown as the heroic people that they were, but the film doesn’t delve into the lives of the staff either. The characters and any greater context into the events that led to these incidents are secondary to the illustrating the momentary actions and emotions. Hotel Mumbai is an incredibly effective, visceral depiction of what it could have been like to endure this act of terror, but lacks a deeper meaning behind the recreation.

4/5 stars.

Lion (2016)

A Weinstein backed film based on a true story getting Oscar buzz is nothing new, but in this case the real facts are actually stranger than fiction. Saroo (Sunny Pawar), a young boy in India, travels with his older brother to a train station. Feeling tired he falls asleep on a bench while waiting for his brother to return. When he wakes up his brother is nowhere to be found and he steps onto a nearby train only to get stuck onboard as the train starts to move. Days later he wakes up in a different part of the country unable to communicate where he is from. He is eventually taken into an orphanage and adopted by Australian parents. As an adult, Saroo (Dev Patel; Slumdog Millionare) is haunted by memories of his childhood. Using the newly created Google Earth, he tries to map out the potential train stations and cities he might be from using the few vague details he is able to recall.

Director Garth Davis effectively creates the fear of being a lost child. Although he is a first time actor, Pawar is able to carry the film by himself. He is beyond cute and his winning smile, resourcefulness, and desire to do things despite his tiny size are incredibly endearing. Davis makes full use of his stature as he shows the world from young Saroo’s perspective. After arriving at the foreign train station, Saroo is lost in a sea of bodies. The camera is placed at his eye level as he is knocked around by the lower halves of the people around him. He can’t even reach the counter of the train station to ask for help. Unlike many other countries, India has several regional languages and Saroo isn’t able to speak the language of his new location which creates additional complications. As he wanders the unknown city by himself, Saroo’s plight is palpable.

Pawar is captivating as the young Saroo.

It’s the story of the older Saroo that doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. Dev Patel has proven himself as a talented actor in other roles, but doesn’t act believably here. As memories of his past become more prevalent, he pushes out the people in his life. He has loving parents that only want the best for him, but keeps them out of the loop. Nicole Kidman as his adopted mother is deeply sympathetic as the woman trying to hold her family together, but Saroo doesn’t confide in her until much later. Even his caring girlfriend (Rooney Mara in a severely underwritten part) is forced out of his life. This should be a role that inspires compassion, but Patel’s portrayal feels more like childish moping than traumatic grief.

As the film comes to a close, it is sure to elicit an emotional response. The details of the events are too extraordinary for it not to. Credit has to be given to the filmmakers for their work on the first half, but the majority of the film’s strength comes from the setup. Lion has a strong start but is unable to maintain the momentum as it relies on its true story origins to deliver an impact.

3/5 stars.