Film Reviews

Millions

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Alexander Nathan Etel
• Details:

It's 12 days to the Euro changeover, and a quarter of a million in used sterling notes falls off a train and lands at your feet. What do you do? If you're eight-year-old Damian (Etel), you do your best to give it away to the poor and homeless - mind you, Damian believes the money has come from God, and he wants to become a saint so he can join his dead mum in heaven. This approach incurs the wrath of his 10-year-old brother Anthony (McGibbon), who's more interested in buying Playstations, impressing friends and investing in the property market. And it goes without saying that 'the Poor Man' who went to all the bother of throwing the money off the train in the first place isn't too impressed either. A gentle comedy and a modern parable, Millions is a soft-focus one-for-all-the-family tale that pokes fun at the supposed moral values of adults while cherishing young Damian's unique brand of practical spirituality (Etel makes for a charming and refreshingly ingenuous young talent). The relentless whimsy might begin to grate on the nerves of the more cynical, but Damian's down-to-earth conversations with the various saints he meets on his travels (Francis of Assisi, St Peter, St Nicholas) are almost worth the price of admission alone.

Review by Declan Burke