Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring Alex Etel and James Nesbitt

“You must have the faith of a child.”

From the director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later comes�a heartwarming Christmas movie? Yes, indeed. And why not? Danny Boyle’s career has been characterized by a restless creativity, an almost reckless desire to tackle different genres as if he wants to keep himself guessing as much as the audience. Even when one of his movies misfires (The Beach, many would argue, though I kinda liked it), his approach is always unique and adventurous.

Millions is an unqualified triumph. It’s one of the best family films I’ve seen in years and a worthy addition to the canon of great holiday movies. How this lyrical, lovely movie went largely unnoticed in 2005 is a mystery to me. Though it had a vocal champion in Roger Ebert, who rightly named it one of the ten best movies of the year, Millions was maybe a bit too offbeat to be immediately embraced. I imagine its following will grow as more and more folks discover its eccentric charms on DVD.

The story is about seven-year-old Damian (Alex Etel), a pure-hearted lad with a precocious interest in the history of the saints (including the sometimes gruesome ways they were martyred). One fateful day, a duffel bag full of cash literally falls from the sky and just about lands in his lap. He thinks it’s a gift from God. Inspired by his imaginary — or perhaps visionary — conversations with various saints, including St. Francis of Assisi and, naturally, St. Nick, Damian determines to use the money to help the poor. His older brother, Anthony, the more cynical and materialist of the two, has other plans. As Christmas approaches, the two brothers will have to decide how to spend the money and how to keep it a secret, even as they learn that the cash was stolen loot, and that the menacing-looking robbers want it back.

That set-up could easily have become the kind of syrupy story that ends up as a TV Movie-of the-Week, or else as a dumb, goofy action/comedy in the Home Alone 3 vein. Thank God that didn’t happen. Danny Boyle’s treatment of the material is almost rapturous with joy and goodwill, not to mention artistic invention. This movie proves that heart and art need not be mutually exclusive. The story clips along at a snappy pace with smart, humorous dialogue and refreshing, recognizable characters (I especially liked James Nesbitt as a flawed but good-hearted dad). Every frame is energized by bold colors, stylish compositions, and a glowing atmosphere; as if Boyle had managed to visually recreate a child’s wide-eyed wonder at the world.

Millions is great to look at, but Boyle’s biggest coup was casting young Alex Etel as the movie’s thoughtful hero. This kid is so adorable you’ll want to take him home with you. He completely lacks the self-conscious cutesiness that mars so many children’s performances on film and television. His commitment to making Damian — who is clearly a saint-in-the-making — real and unaffected (and somehow not in the least annoying) merits him a spot on the list of all-time great kids’ performances, right up there with Jackie Coogan in Chaplin�s The Kid and Henry Thomas in E.T.

The script, written by celebrated scribe Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary and Jackie, Welcome to Sarajevo, and 24 Hour Party People) is smart, funny, sincere, and warmhearted, which is a pretty rare mix of qualities in any movie, much less one with the “family film” label. Boyce, who is the father of seven children, has said that the idea for Millions came to him after reading an Ebert interview with Martin Scorsese, who told Ebert that he was currently reading a book called Six O’clock Saints. In Boyce’s own words, the interview with Scorsese “sent me scuttling back to a dictionary of saints I’d had as a child and opening it up was like opening my own mysterious bag of cash — endless mad, gigantic stories. Narrative cash.”

How right he was. The lives of the saints are a storytelling goldmine: inexhaustibly dramatic, dynamic, and passionate. While the movie’s portrayal of certain saints — a chain-smoking St. Clare or an earthy St. Peter — may seem irreverent, the representations are deeply affectionate. These aren’t distant, unapproachable figures, armored by supernatural holiness; they are sweet, caring, everyday sorts of people who respond to Damian’s fervor with approval and delight.

You can sense the filmmakers do as well. Their joy in telling this worthy, life-affirming story with wit and invention — and without ever condescending to their young protagonist or his faith — is visible in every frame of the movie. I’ve been making it a one-man mission to introduce my friends and acquaintances to this generous, heartfelt family movie, and they have all been grateful that it didn’t get lost in DVD limbo. Do yourself a favor and stuff Millions in someone’s stocking this Christmas, maybe even your own.

Posted by John Murphy on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 2:49 pm.