Slumdog Millionaire

Rachel and I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire. We had been waiting for it to come out on video so we could get it through Netflix, rather than paying theater prices for it. It was definitely worth the wait. But I'm still trying to put together all the pieces and figure out what I thought about it.

Part of the problem is that I simply don't understand extreme poverty. I don't have a place to put that. I can't understand true desperation. The reality of life in much of India is beyond my ability to comprehend it. I know that it is tragic and terrible, but I can't quite know what a slum truly is.

The rest of the problem is that this movie is terribly complex. That's a good thing, but it also means that for the next week or so I'm going to be chewing on this movie like a good meal. It involves desperation and desperate love, corruption, greed and many more basic human emotions. It shows us what a life lived in pursuit of love looks like, even when derailed by so many other forces in the world. Jamal, the main character, was so single-mindedly focused on love that he was not to be denied. I never doubted him for a minute, even as the world around him tried to devour itself.

I can't put into words the depths of the poverty and the desperation it drives some people to. I can never understand, and never want to understand, the depths of human depravity. It is sickening.

But in the midst of all of that, Jamal gives us hope, because he is not afraid to be driven by love, and he shows us that love can win. It doesn't have to bow its head in defeat to selfishness and greed. Love can win, and it is a beautiful thing when it does. In spite of the maelstrom that surrounded Jamal, his love was a place of peace, and I truly enjoyed the journey even if it went through the storms to arrive there.