Millions is an interesting fantasy tale about a little boy who finds several hundred thousand dollars (or pounds, since this is a British movie) and tries to do good with it. Of course, his older brother wants to spend it all, and together they try to hide their wealth. Then there’s always the issue of where the money really came from and who might want it back.
The movie begins showing a father (James Nesbitt) and two younger boys (Alexander Nathan Etel and Lewis McGibbon) moving into a new house. The mother has just recently passed away and they all need a change of scenery. After moving in, the youngest boy uses a bunch of the empty moving boxes to build a huge fort in a field behind their neighborhood. The cardboard fort is close enough to a railroad track that it shakes every time a train goes by. One day while the boy is playing inside, another train comes by and then something lands on the boxes and nearly crushes the boy. He crawls out of the wreckage to find a very large duffle bag full of money.
The boy (Etel) is very young and still coping with the loss of his mother, and much of the movie is shown from his own imaginative perspective. He’s a very spiritual young man and hung up on saints and angels, so when the money appears, he thinks it is a gift from God. The boy then starts to give the money out to local poor people and to charities, but people quickly notice that something is wrong when a kid is dropping hundreds into change buckets. Another issue with the money is that the kid comes across the cash just days before England is switching over to the Euro, so unless he exchanges the money, it will soon be worthless.
This is a Danny Boyle film, so I knew there would be some kind of dark twist. All of his movies usually start out kind of happy and weird, then turn very very dark toward the end. Shallow Grave and The Beach are fine examples of the type of story he likes to tell. In Millions, the dark twist comes when the true origin of the money is revealed, and the situation becomes dangerous when a strange man comes looking for it. Have no fear, though, because this atypical Boyle film is rated PG.
Young Alex Etel is great in his first starring role and I’d like to see him do some more work. Lewis McGibbon is also great as the older brother with an attitude problem, and he sort of reminds me of a young Ali G. James Nesbitt is wonderful as the loving father who tries to hold everything together. Daisy Donovan, currently seen on TV in Daisy Does America is brilliant as the new girlfriend of the father and a friend of the boys who helps them deal with all the money. She’s easy on the eyes, too.
Millions is a very different movie, but I liked it. Some of the religious scenery might offend some, such as one scene where it shows Saint Peter smoking what appears to be a joint. That aside, there are a couple of very moving scenes, and the story is very interesting. In the end, this isn’t a movie about a bunch of kids finding money, but more about how people deal with their gains and losses. Give this one some consideration.
Starting anew after the death of their mother, 9-year-old Anthony is ever practical, while his 7-year-old brother Damian uses imagination, fantasy, an...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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