Millions vs Dirty Pretty Things

In the movies, I cut British kids a lot more slack than American kids. Or maybe it's that British filmmakers cut kids less slack than their American counterparts. Regardless, there's a quality in movies like Pay it Forward that I just can't abide. Don't tell me the right away to be good, sucka. Back off, Haley Joel. But Millions, which has so much to say about being good and doing good, and uses a young kid to manipulate my emotions, won me over anyway. It's a good trick if you can get away with it, though few can.

Millions, which I've already implied is sweet beyond all reason, was directed by Danny Boyle, who usually puts sweet in the “No” column when directing movies. Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later are great movies, but if they're suffering from anything, it's sweet deprivation. With Millions, Boyle puts his heart on the screen, and it pays off, while keeping Boyle's signature visual quirks and sense of humor nearby in case of emergency.

Damian and Anthony are brothers, living with their father in a new subdivision in Britain. Soon after moving in, a local police officer (or maybe he is Subdivision Security, if there is such a thing) visits and tells them to expect burglars. Despite this warning, the home seems happy and safe. The boys have recently lost their mother, and their father seems justifiably sad, although he's still practical and loving. At one point he takes about thirty seconds to teach the boys how to cook dinner, and it's obvious this is a good man who will not stop being a good dad just because his heart is broken.

After settling into the new house, Damian drags the furniture-and-appliance boxes out near the railroad tracks, and constructs his playhouse, a sanctuary where he can talk to the Saints. Damian is an expert on saints, sees them clearly, and has enlightening conversations about life and death. He often asks if any of them have heard of Saint Maureen, but none have. If you haven't guessed who Saint Maureen is, you just haven't been paying attention. It's during one of these conversations that the money falls from the sky. It's in a duffle bag, but Damian is certain it came from God, and certain it's his to help the poor. His brother Anthony, being more streetwise, has other plans for it. What results could have been one of those over-the-top blingfests, but instead is pretty much what you'd expect from kids in real life. Anthony pays off his new classmates to be his Secret Service, while Damian tries, misguidedly at times, to help the poor. In a few days, Britain will switch to the Euro, so the boys have a deadline before which to either spend or convert the money. Their level of intelligence about it provides many of the laughs in Millions, as well as the suspense. All the while, they're being watched by the man who lost the duffle of money, and if you think he came by it honestly, then there's this thing called a movie, and you really ought to consider watching one some time. How about Millions? It's pretty good.

Throughout Millions, Danny Boyle keeps the levels of joy and sadness ratcheted way up, sometimes on screen at the same time. The performances are stellar (especially Alex Etel as Damian and James Nesbitt as his dad), and visually the movie is constantly inventive. Millions even ventures into that kids' movie realm of manipulation and cliché: the Nativity play, and survives without a scratch. Eventually, of course, there is conflict, because that's what money does, but there's also happiness, because money can do that too. Whether or not the kids do good with their money isn't really the issue. Danny Boyle knows that sometimes doing the right thing is the only thing you can do, but it doesn't mean you have to be a sap about it.

I've never been to Britain, and I have to admit, a few times during Millions, I caught myself thinking, I didn't even know they had suburbs. Well, of course they do, but we never see them in the movies. Dirty Pretty Things shows me another British world I'd never thought about, and while it's way grittier and alternative than Millions, it's no less inventive and surprising. Like Millions, Dirty Pretty Things begins with a found object. This time, instead of money, it's a human heart in a toilet. Oh, I guess I should say Dirty Pretty Things isn't quite as happy a movie as Millions. Sometimes that's the point here. Still with me?

In the world of Dirty Pretty Things, directed by Stephen Frears, the London service industry is made up of illegal immigrants. The movie is set in a hotel, where the maids, bellhops, cooks and doormen are in the country without documentation, many under assumed identities. Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a doctor in his native country, but works the desk in London. He's the guy who found the heart, and begins investigating, although no one seems to be missing a heart, and no one seems eager to answer any questions. His roommate, Senay, is a shy woman from Turkey who works as a maid and would like to live in New York. Senay is played by Audrey Tautou, who is French and here speaks English with a Turkish accent, which is the vocal equivalent of spinning a basketball on your finger and kicking a field goal simultaneously, while twirling a baton or maybe juggling that stick with the other two sticks. Senay and Okwe share an obvious attraction, although Senay doesn't even like for them to be at the apartment at the same time, and avoids Okwe at work, lest they draw too much attention to their illegal status. You've probably guessed that Dirty Pretty Things can be a bit of a downer, but come on, they all can't have tiny Brits on shopping sprees.

Dirty Pretty Things, with its missing organs and denizens of the underground (it's revealed fairly quickly what's going on, but I'll not spoil it here) could play out like a thriller, but it doesn't. It's more concerned with the slice of life played out each day by Okwe, Senay, their prostitute friend Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) and countless others in sweatshops, morgues and laundries. The mess they find themselves in, and what they do about it, fuels the climax of Dirty Pretty Things, but for the bulk of the movie, we get exactly what the title promises: the ugly side of the city, and the beautiful people who live there.

Millions: A-
Pretty Dirty Things: B