Family-friendly 'Millions' a windfall for audiences

By Bruce Newman
Knight Ridder Newspapers

MILLIONS Rated PG (thematic elements, mild profanity, some peril, mild sensuality) Cast Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan Director Danny Boyle Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce Running time 1 hour, 37 minutes

Make it so the story is seen through the eyes of a little boy who has religious visions — this kid has talked to more saints than Joan of Arc — and then get Danny Boyle, director of such gritty fare as "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave," to infuse it with airy fairy "magical realism," about which he knows next to nothing.

It sounds awful. But "Millions" avoids most of the pitfalls of movies made by grown-ups about the secret lives of children, and emerges as the best movie of the new year.

Boyle and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce have created a world that is fresh and alive, that actually feels as if it were inhabited by children, not memories. And what children! Speckled with freckles, 7-year-old Damian Cunningham knows his saints from Assissi to Zosimus, and summons them up in visions that come to him in a cardboard fortress he has built by the railroad track. Damian's celestial visions occasionally reveal sainthood's lesser known requirements, such as St. Clare of Assissi's ability to blow blessedly fine smoke rings.

Damian and his 9-year-old brother, Anthony, are about to move to a suburban housing tract that is just a diagram on the ground when we meet them, and even after the walls and roof have been filled in, Boyle continues to fly his camera around at ceiling-level, as if he — or somebody — were looking down on the lads from heaven above. It could be their mother, who has just died, or it could be the acting gods, who smile on the performances of newcomers Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon as the brothers. They join with the remarkable young Irish sisters in Jim Sheridan's "In America" to create the impression that the British Isles are teeming with children in need of representation.

On the first day at their new school, Damian recounts increasingly gory stories about the martyrdom of saints. When this causes a stir, Anthony gruffly counsels him, "Keep off the weird stuff." Anthony is the practical one, who knows how to work the local shopkeepers for sweets, telling them sadly, "Me mom's dead."

One day, a satchel falls out of the sky and lands on Damian's fortress, revealing a fortune in pound notes. Damian tells his brother about this literal windfall, and gets a lesson in fiscal conservatism. Anthony knows the value of money, even if he doesn't understand the implications of so much of it. He says that declaring it to the government would result in a 40 percent tax penalty, an unfair intrusion into the process of piling up PlayStation games.

The boys begin bringing their friends around for a look, swearing each one to secrecy. But when St. Francis of Assissi stops by, he suggests to Damian that the cash be given away to the poor. With charity in his heart and cash in his pocket, Damian dutifully spreads the wealth, or tries to. The first batch of beggars he comes across turn out to be commuters, who have come by bus seeking a handout.

"Millions" manages to poke gentle fun at ineffectual neighborhood watch groups and conspicuously consuming Mormon missionaries, while never losing its sense of wonder at the good in people like Damian. He can't resist the impulse to give, and when a woman comes to their school to collect change for the poor, Damian chucks in a 1,000 roll wad of bills. Asked to explain where he got the loot, and why he's giving it away, Damian replies, "I thought it was from God. Who else would have that kind of money?"

Only God and train robbers, as it turns out. When a stranger appears and begins asking suspicious questions, Damian tells him they have "tons of money." Anthony, who now regards the money as his, has been assembling a retinue of servants at school, and testing the real estate market. He tries to throw the man off the trail of the loot, and soon he is abetted in this by their dad (James Nesbitt), who declares, "I am owed this."

Even Damian's enthusiasm for giving the money away is dampened when he learns where it really came from. "I thought it was a miracle," he says sadly, "but it was just robbed."

It's still a miracle. "Millions" extends its hand in generosity, and marches to the rhythm of the saints.