Millions review Issue #23

Directed by Danny Boyle

By Michael Hastings
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 11:59am

Imagine E.T. with stacks of cash instead of a benevolent alien, and you’d get something like Millions, director Danny Boyle’s unlikely follow-up to his 2002 zombie comeback hit 28 Days Later. The story of two newly motherless brothers who find themselves in care of literally millions of ill-gotten pound notes on the eve of the Euro switchover, the film may on the surface appear to be Boyle’s attempt to make a hip, British version of Home Alone. But in practice, Millions plays more like Shallow Grave for the preteen set — it’s a tale of greed and duplicity wrapped up with a feel-good ending.

Working from a script by the usually reliable Frank Cottrell Boyce (Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People), Boyle has come up with something of a mixed bag: a movie that wants to have its millions and a moral, too. As the impish younger brother Damian, the utterly natural Alex Etel carries the weight of the script’s loftier conceits, including his character’s near-profound voice-over narration and a quirky fascination with saints and altruism.

Unfortunately, Boyle’s flashy, ADD filmmaking style and his tendency to dwell on the upside of hoarding and spending loads of cash undercut the touchy-feely sentiment Millions tries to earn in its last reel. Boyle hasn’t made a gross miscalculation on the order of the self-indulgent A Life Less Ordinary or the lobotomized Hollywood flop The Beach. With Millions, it’s clear that he’s committed to making distinctly British films about distinctly British characters and that he’s not going to fall so easily into the same big-budget trap he did with Leonardo DiCaprio. What’s surprising is that he’s made a film in which selling out — or rather, spending all you can — is more a virtue than a vice.