accessAtlanta

'Millions': Humor and hope delivered with charm

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

You never know who you'll meet in a Danny Boyle movie.

Toilet-mouthed heroin addicts in "Trainspotting."

Ravenous zombies in "28 Days Later."

Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach."

Fox Searchlight

'Millions'

B+

The verdict: A small-scaled treasure.

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Alexander Nathan Etel, Lewis Owen McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Christopher Fulford
Run time: 97 minutes
Release date: March 25, 2005
Rating: PG for thematic elements, language, some peril and mild sensuality.
See showtimes

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
-- Trailers require Quicktime

In his lovely new movie, "Millions," Boyle introduces us to 7-year-old Damian (Alex Etel) and his 9-year-old brother, Anthony (Lewis McGibbon). They've just moved with their dad ("Bloody Sunday's" James Nesbitt) into a shiny new home — which is built before our eyes in an engaging bit of CGI magic. Their mom died not too long ago and the reason for the move has just as much to do with leaving behind painful memories as it does with trading up to a better house.

Damian is bright-eyed, curious and, well, a bit unusual. He chats with assorted Catholic saints on a regular basis, identifying them as they appear like an eager student in a religious history class. "Saint Clare of Assisi, 1194-1253," he chirps when the chain-smoking patron saint of television, as he identifies her, plops down next to him in his cardboard-box hideaway by the train tracks.

So when a duffel bag crammed with British pounds falls out of the sky and onto his hideout, Damian happily concludes a miracle has taken place. Actually, it's stolen loot tossed out of a passing train by a robber (Christopher Fulford) who'd very much like it back.

"Pounds" is the key word here. England is about to switch over to the euro and within a week, the pound notes will be worthless. So, how to spend it? The more practical Anthony envisions tax shelters and real estate investments, while his more vision-prone brother wants to do good deeds. Like helping bring water to Ethiopia or treating some homeless people to pizza.

Telling dad isn't an option. Taxes, Anthony explains.

Fancifully done in the manner of a Tim Burton movie, "Millions" hasn't a mean bone in its, well, film reels. Its lesson — that unexpected cash can be costly in unexpected ways and faith can bring untold riches — is imparted with a cockeyed charm. Especially by young Etel. A freckle-faced find with serious eyes, he's an engaging imp as well as a true believer.

True, the film lacks that intangible something that made other child-centric movies like "Into the Sea" or "The Secret of Roan Inish" truly magical. But Boyle often comes close. Damian's saints drop by like the ghosts in "A Christmas Carol," only they're much less threatening. Further, "Millions" is set in a world more real than those pictures. A world of schools and banks and stores and trains and longed-for dead mothers.

The plot doesn't always make sense, but Boyle's visual inventiveness — his lickety-split montages or snappy editing — keeps you hooked. There's grief here. And greed. But happiness, humor and hope as well.