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THRILLER DRAMA JULIA (15) 138min 0000

What begins as a grim character study of a middle-aged alcoholic becomes a blackly funny crime caper/road movie. Tilda Swinton is in ferocious good form as the titular 40-year-old drunk, a woman whose natural good looks and flamboyant attitude are increasingly no disguise for her loneliness and self-loathing. Unable to hold down a job, and on the verge of alienating her sole friend, a recovering alcoholic named Mitch (Saul Rubinek), the desperate and almost destitute Julia agrees to participate in a kidnapping. But when the plan goes pear-shaped, Julia finds herself abandoning the bars of Los Angeles for the alien landscape of New Mexico as she goes on the run with a rich man’s young son (Aidan Gould).

Appearing in virtually every scene in the film, Swinton delivers a tour-de- force performance that’s far more impressive than her recent US-set crime movie dalliances with George Clooney in Burn After Reading and Michael Clayton. Meanwhile, French director Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels, The Little Thief) pulls off the tricky feat of transforming the film from character piece into genre film. Along the way Zonca manages to effect several tonal switches without damaging the narrative or losing a sense of coherence. Despite some seriously despicable behaviour, Julia remains a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist. (Miles Fielder)

I Fi/inhouse. Edinburgh, Fri Q—Tue 73 Jan.

46 THE LIST 8 2'2 Jan 9005)

ROMANCE DRAMA SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (15) 120min 0000

Adapted by Simon Beaufoy from Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A this winning story of a Mumbai street urchin (Skins' Dev Patel) who makes it to the final round of India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? might well be the film that finally eclipses the Yorkshire screenwriter's supremely successful 1997 debut, The Full Monty. Similarly. Danny Boyle's imaginative and ultra-dynamic treatment of the material makes Slumdog Millionaire arguably the best film yet from the talented director of hits such as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Mil/ions.

Working with a small British crew (among them the excellent cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle) and a larger Indian one (including most notably co-director Loveleen Tandan), Boyle and Beaufoy have fashioned an enormously enjoyable film that's part Bollywood romance. part Dickensian social drama and part gangster movie. Shot on location in and around the slums of Mumbai. it's a hyper-realistic thrill-ride that gives a great sense of life in the chaotic and contradictory city that's currently in the news due to the recent terrorist attacks.

Watching Slumdog Millionaire feels like watching six films at once. all of which is quite in keeping with the Bollywood cinema style that this film happily embraces. right down to the marvellous song and dance routine during the

closing credits. (Miles Fielder)

I General release from Fri 9 Jan. See feature, page 18 and profile in index.

DRAMA MYSTERY THE MAN FROM LONDON (12A) 135min 00.

Given Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr's penchant for prolonged gloomy probings into the nature of human existence (see his 45(l-iiiiiiiite Satan's Tangor this adaptation of a lesser- known novel by Belgian crime writer Georges Simenon would seem a perfect fit. Tarr focuses on the inherent existentialism of Simenon's novel. which concerns a reclusive railway worker named Maloin who's stationed in a signal box at an unnamed French seaport and whose humdrum life is overturned after he witnesses a murder. The event prompts Maloin (played by C/ech actor Miroslav Krobot) to awake from his mechanical existence and undertake actions that lead him inexorably towards his fate. This simple set-up also involves Maloin's distant wife (Tilda Swinton). the murderer and the titular policeman (Hungarians Janos Der/si and lstvan Lonart). But their roles are not nearly as antagonistic as they would be in an American film noir. and it's here that Tarr puts his stamp on the material. Certainly. The Man From London looks like a film noir, With its dockland locations and stark black and white photography by German DOP Fred Keleiiien. But Tarr's unerring focus on Maloin. whether it's lengthy shots of the man himself or similar longeurs from his point of view. suggest he alone is responsible for his fate. That's something Siiiienon might have applauded. but it doesn't make for engaging cinema. The static pacing is too slow for the film to work as a thriller. existential or otherwise. (Miles Fielder) I Fi/nihouse, Edinburgh and selected release, Fri 16—Mon IS) Jan.

COMEDY ADVENTURE BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA

(U) 91 min 00

The gritty. seedy world of Mexican dog fighting evoked in Amores Perros is (unsurprisingly) entirely missing from this brightly-lit family comedy from Raia Gosnell. the auteur behind Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a vapid fisl'i-out-of-water confection. revolwng around posh pooch Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore?) who gets kidnapped from Rachel (Piper Perabo) during a vacation in the resort of Los Cabos. To keep Chloe's real owner. Rachel's aunt Vivian (Jamie Lee Curtis). in the dark. Rachel sets out to rescue the pampered pet from her potential fate at the hands of Mexican dogfighters. With the talents of Andy Garcia and PlaCido Domingo among others chipping in. Beverly Hills Chihuahua is surprisingly talent-heavy for a one-joke talking-deg movie. and adults may sguirm at seeing Curtis growling and whimpering for cheap laughs. The Synchronisation of the human voices applied to the dogs is as take as the musical choices are obvious (the opening montage fawning over affluent suburban life is accompanied by a blast of Gwen Stefani's mega-hit ‘Rich Girl'). Any parents disturbed by the super-aggressive product placement in last year's Enchanted may well conclude that Disney's sense of child responsibility has long since gone to the dogs. (Eddie Harrison) I General release from Fri 16 Jan.