Millions
' charm might rot your teeth.
By now, the phrase "money is the root of all evil" might qualify for an upgrade from its status as "cliché" to "accepted (if ignored) fact." We know from nightly news that no amount of money can keep celebrity couples together or politicians honest, but we believe from the
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same mainstream media dreams that in the right hands-our hands-gobs of money could be put to good use.
But what if a great sum of money did fall into the right hands-the hands of a saint-obsessed little boy whose mother has just died? Director Danny Boyle (
28 Days Later
) attempts to answer that question with
Millions
.
When Damian (Alexander Etel) and his family move to a new home in the suburbs, he builds a cardboard fort next to the train tracks behind his house, a place he goes to be alone and watch the trains go by, but his home away from home is damaged when a large bag of cash crashes into the hut and changes his life.
Damian, thinking it a gift from God, decides to put the money to good use and, aided by visions of his favorite saints, begins helping people in need. His brother Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) has other ideas however, and uses
the money to elevate his social standing at school and look into investment options. When the two learn the money is stolen, Damian is crushed. The boys have to decide what to do with the pound notes before England switches to the Euro, rendering the cash worthless.
The film's opening scenes are charming and funny, punctuated by Etel's performance as the precocious Damian and lively, sometimes twitchy, camera work that manages to convey what it must be like to be a young boy with a lot of money. Boyle even arranges to sneak in some of
28 Days Later
's residual creepiness in the form of the Poor Man (Christopher Fulford), one of the men involved in the train robbery that inadvertently brought the money to Damian.
Unfortunately, the film's charm soon starts to wear out its welcome. As Damian struggles to get rid of the
money and his problems mount, the film likewise
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becomes increasingly problematic.
"Money's just a thing," Damian says, "and things change." Sage wisdom from someone barely old enough to dress himself, but, although he's quite skilled, 11 year-old Etel is saddled with too much of the film's emotional burden for a boy his age. Boyle, apparently sensing this, allows Damian's father (James Nesbit) and his older brother to shoulder some of the weight by the third act, but by then it's too late. After the first half-hour, watching the film is like watching the air go out of a really cool balloon. By the end, the film's themes of death and charity become a sentimental mix of by-the-book emotions that ruin an otherwise charming film.
Just as money can corrupt people,
Millions
is corrupted by its own sweetness, a tooth-aching concoction of its precocious star, an uplifting greeting card message and its syrupy ending. Money may be the root of all evil, but then again, maybe it's just the root of poor filmmaking.
