5/5 "I thought it came from God!"
  by M. J Leonard (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States)
Maverick British Director Danny Boyle has really outdone himself with Millions, an absolutely terrific, sincere, and intrinsically spiritual family film about money, faith, the power of imagination, and the unquestionable ability to believe that everything is going to turn out all right in the end. Boyle uses his trademark visual flair to produce a gorgeously heartfelt and emotionally delicate children's movie that is all about being good, sometimes being bad, and often being downright scared.

Set in and around a new suburban housing development in Northern England, the story centers on lonesome, motherless spiritually receptive seven-year-old Damian (Alex Etel, making a sensational film debut), his hardheaded 9-year-old brother Anthony (Lewis McGibbon), and their adoring, loving father, Ronnie (James Nesbitt). The film begins as Damian, Anthony, and Ronnie are moving to a new house because their old home is full of memories, where once upon a time they lived with a loving wife and mother.

Recently deceased, the missing woman hangs over this woeful threesome, and her absence shapes their days and nights. They see this move as a fresh start, a way to squash the ghosts of the past, while also looking forward to a happier and more comfortable future. Anthony is the financially savvier of the two boys - consumer orientated and realistic, he's right up with the latest exchange rates, as the Country is just about to convert to Euros. Damian, quieter and more sensitive, spends the days on his own, building a house of discarded cardboard boxes next to the local train line. Possessed with a vivid imagination, he loves reading about saints who sometimes come alive for him, and works on elevating his mum to the ranks of one of them.

Then temptation falls from the sky, literally, when a when a big black overstuffed bag full of money falls on Damian. He thinks it's a message from God, and faced with the burden of responsibility, he decides to give as much of the money away to the poor as he can. Of course, the streetwise Anthony has other plans - he wants to invest it in real estate, or get it transferred into Euros (he doesn't want to pay the forty percent tax on it). But the original owners of the money are hot on the trail and things start to get very frightening for Damien when a leather-jacketed, malevolent looking man turns up demanding that the boy to hand the money back.

Fast paced and visually stunning, the movie jumps along from scene to scene catching the viewer and quickly reeling us in. With a cute face that is splashed with freckles, Damien is a gravely beautiful child, who believes he's on speaking terms with the saints (they regularly appear with translucent halos on their heads). The young actor brings to the role the strange ethereality of those children who never fit in, but curl into their own private worlds, giggling at jokes no one else hears.

Millions has plenty of story for both adults and children to appreciate and its sense of fun is totally infectious. The characters are all absolutely endearing and lovely to watch, including a sweetheart for Ronnie, a quirky group of Latter-day Saints, a bunch of train robbers, an eccentric local police officer, a boogeyman, and of course all the nomadic martyrs. Mr. Boyle uses all manner of enjoyable tricks to show us what his characters see; more poignantly, he also shows us what Damien sees, and it's a world where absurdity is an everyday occurrence and what takes places inside a young boy's head fights for shelf space with what's happening in the outside world. Mike Leonard March 05.


4/5 Shows the constructive and destructive power of money
  by K. Hand (CA)
This was a great film that really shows what money can do to people. It is also fascinating that it is the youngest person who actually has philanthropic ideas on how to spend it.

Spurred on by the urgency that England is switching over to the Euro in a few days (not gonna happen,) freckle-faced Damien and his brother, Anthony, have to think fast. Damien feels the money came from God and therefore should be used to help the less fortunate. Anthony feels like they *are* the less fortunate and should use it to help themselves. Damien is also helped by odd visions of saints who counsel him. Meanwhile, Anthony is out pricing real estate.

Of course, tossing money on unsuspecting children is not really God's style, as the boys' father states. The money was actually tossed by a bank robber who wants it back at any cost.

This is a fun yet profound film that accurately shows greed, kindness, faith, and selfishness all resulting from the same event. The viewer is left with a satisfied feeling and even a few introspective questions like, "What would I do if the same thing happened to me?"

Highly recommended--

5/5 Faith, Hope, and Charity - with a little help from the Saints
  by Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
Danny Boyle ('28 Days Later', 'Trainspotting', 'A Life Less Ordinary') has a way with stories that transports a good script (in this case one by Frank Cottrell Boyce) into a cinematic range that creates magic. MILLIONS may seem like a little family tale on the surface, but in Boyle's hands this story about the struggle between Janus ethics vaults off into magical realism, happily taking the audience along for a journey of wonder and joy and the importance of charity.

Damian (Alexander Nathan Etel) and his older brother Anthony (Lewis Owen McGibbon) are moved by their father Ronnie (James Nesbitt) to a new housing project after the untimely death of the boys' mother. The brothers are devoted to each other yet Anthony is the pragmatist while Damian is the dreamer, a lad who regularly has visions and poignant converations with dead saints, always asking if they know anything about St. Maureen (his recently deceased mother). Damian believes in miracles and when suddenly a Nike bag containing a quarter of a million British pounds falls on his playhouse he believes it is from God and that it is his responsibility to distribute the money to the poor. When he shares the secret with Anthony, the latter's psyche begins to organize ways to spend and invest the money - because the British sterling will soon convert to the Euro making the bag's stash useless.

The journey of how the two brothers cope with their instant fortune and how they cope with their family minus one forms the line of the film. There are good guys, bad guys, various saints, hilarious encounters with mundane ethically bifurcated folks like a Mormon team - all of whom make the visual and emotional aspects of this film thoroughly entertaining. The actors, especially young Atel, are superb and Boyle's use of the magical ignites the story into an unforgettable fable and tale of humanity. Highly recommended for everyone to see. Grady Harp, November 05.

4/5 Hagiography
  by Bitcetc (Houston, TX USA)
Hagiography:: the study of the lives of the saints.

I've always wanted to use that word "hagiography", and this may be my only opportunity in a movie review. If I knew more about the study of the lives of saints or Catholic conventions, perhaps I would know whether "Damian" has a religious connotation beyond some familiar religiously-themed movie characters, and whether "Damian", a saintly little boy who is the hero of this piece, is symbolic. But while I muse and research, please go see this movie.

Remember when you see this movie that it is a parable, a fable, a teaching tale. If one takes it as the literal story of two young motherless English brothers who are deciding what to do with a bag of money which fell from the sky into Damian's playhouse, one might become impatient with the actions of one or the other brother or of some thin spots in the plot. But after the initial ten minutes of camera tricks and time-lapse photography, and general show-casing of the director's (Danny Boyle's) camera skills already recognized from "Trainspotting", the story itself begins to shine through. The charm of a youngster enamoured of the lives of the saints, and who may be able to communicate with the saints, begins to assert itself.

While Damian believes the money is from God and must be distributed to the poor, his too-street-smart older brother believes they should invest in real estate. This dilemma has a time limit, however, as the British pounds in the bag must be converted into Euros, or become worthless, within days. Also spurred by the clock's ticking down on the value of this cache is the very ungodly thief who stole the money in the first place and who wants it back. And thusly is the question whether the love of money begets all evil illuminated by the light and the dark of this fable.

Alexander Nathan Etel, the unworldly and generous little boy who wants to give all the money away, nonetheless steals the show. If enough people see him in this sweet (but neither mawkish nor maudlin) tale, we may hear his name again in award season. He's really good, and completely charming. The movie is our own little heavenly gift, and we may keep its moral and the good feeling from it as long as we like. B+

5/5 What a Charmer!
  by o dubhthaigh (north rustico, pei, canada)
Well worth the ticket price of movies these days! This lovely film focuses on the story of two little boys who have a bag of money literally descend on them, and of course, the older brother is a financially savvy entrepreneur and the younger one a visionary with a heart of gold. It is a great story for every reason imaginable. While the younger lad sees Saintis who may or may not actually be there and is concerned rpimarily for the welfare of his Mom in the afterlife, the boy sees also the importance of sharing wealth that really isn't yours to begin with. The father, his new girlfriend and the older brother are all ultimately enraptured by the young fella's heart, and along the way there are hilarious episodes, bad guys, silly pranks.
Danny Boyle has got it absolutely right what it means to be a kid. This film is perfect. And as an extraspecial gift, he has used a Clash tune more creatively than anyone could ever have imagined!
Go see this, you'll be enchanted.