MILLIONS

UK, 2004, 98 minutes, Colour.
Alex Etel, Lewis Mc Gibbon, James Nesbitt, Christopher Fulford, Alun Armstrong.
Directed by Danny Boyle.

It is very surprising to see a modern film that takes up religious themes as Millions does.

It is a feelgood film, helped immensely by the charming, naively innocent but shrewdly wise performance of Alex Etel as Damian, the younger brother of Anthony. They have recently lost their mother and have had to move house with their father (James Nesbitt).

Anthony says that Damian is weird. Damian seems weird because he sees things and people – and talks to them.

Damian knows all about the saints, can tell you their dates straight off and has no hesitation or embarrassment in talking about them. In fact, he sees many of them as they visit him in his cardboard carton cubbyhouse or at home. He knows he sees things, but he likes to talk to the saints, creating them as he imagines them, though the down-to-earth, smoking St Clare explaining about how she is patroness of television comes as a bit of a surprise.

Other saints who visit Damian include Francis of Assisi (as Damian sets free boxes of birds), Nicholas of Myra (who speaks in Latin and refers to his Santa Claus tradition), St Peter (Alun Armstrong) with a very interesting riff on the feeding of the five thousand as well as a shrug and pointing upwards, ‘I’m on the gate’, St Joseph who coaches Damian on how he should say his lines in the Nativity play and the martyrs of Uganda who explain to him the need for water in their country and how aid can help.

On a personal note, I had a great empathy with the film: two little boys whose mother had died (much the same age as my brother and I were when our mother died), trying to cope, deal with moves and changes, new schools, understanding their father.

Actually, we had lots of saints’ language in those days – after all I am writing of 1947 and the 1950s. Our mother’s anniversary of death was like a feast day. She was now a saint. It is the same with Damian. He asks the saints whether they have seen his mother in heaven. And it does not spoil the ending to reveal what he might have hoped for, that his mother finally appears to him – and the sceptical Anthony also sees her.

This knowledge of the lives and legends of the saints is not commonplace anymore. Millions reminds us that we could do with a bit more knowledge of and affection for the saints. We glimpse a copy of a book called ‘Six O’ Clock Saints’. That was obligatory reading for us back in primary school – they were even read aloud at boarding school before the weekly film screening. Joan Wyndham wrote many of these books. They delighted our imaginations. The IMDb biography of Frank Cottrell Boyce notes that he heard Martin Scorsese refers to The Six O’ Clock Saints and his childhood. It means that Millions communicates a great deal of children’s responses to religion and faith.

There is a lot more to Millions as well – especially in terms of money. When Damian discovers a bag full of money, he thinks it is from God and he wants to distribute it to the poor. His eager but non-worldly-wise ways of doing this are part of the humour and the sentiment. Young Damian is an idealist: a creatively imaginative little boy whose face to the world is principled and personal generosity, coping with the money, criminals and police and doing the right and honest thing.

For British audiences the whole film is idealist. In fact, it is more than a bit of a make-believe story because the setting is the UK changing from sterling to the euro! Frank Cottrell Boyce has written many screenplays, quite a number for Michael Winterbottom. His versatile portfolio includes Butterfly Kiss, Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland. More surprising is the choice of director, Danny Boyle, best known for Shallow Grave and Trainspotting as well as The Beach and Twenty Eight Days Later.

Millions is a very nice film. It may seem too nice to more ‘sophisticated’ tastes. But, audiences who enjoyed the story of Billy Elliot and other tales of youngsters will not be sorry they saw Millions.

1. The audience for this film? Children? Adults? Religious people? Non-religious?

2. The British countryside, the town, homes and schools, ordinary? The musical score?

3. The title, money, the speculations of Britain’s joining the Euro currency, the sense of urgency for the day of change, robberies and banks, money-mindedness, the contrast with charity and principle? Leslie Phillips and the euro adds?

4. Damien and Anthony, brothers, their age, the differing personalities? The death of their mother? Their father bringing them up? Their relationship with him? The differences, at school? Damien and his house in the field? The brothers and their squabbles? Anthony and his being older and superior?

5. The Catholic background to the film, the book of Six O’ Clock Saints? Damien and his beliefs, his imagination, his facts and figures and dates about the saints? A boy of principle? Remembering his mother as a saint and wanting the saints to reassure him that she was in Heaven?

6. The appearances of the saints and the comic touch? St Clare, her habit, explanation of the patroness of television, smoking and everything being possible in Heaven, the chat? St Francis and his habit, the birds and liberation, his talking about his own times? St Nicholas, his language and the subtitles, Damien understanding and asking questions, the distribution of the gifts, the puzzle about the money? St Peter, talking about Heaven, the jokes about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the feeding the people with sardines and their supplying their own food, locks and bolts? St Joseph, his advice for performance, saying the line in the play, taking the donkey away? The importance of the saints in the Catholic imagination? Even the legends?

7. The mother appearing at the end, talking with Damien, Anthony seeing her, Damien and his chat, the chat about his father, ordinary holiness in ordinary life, the mother’s advice?

8. The stolen money, tossed out of the train, hitting the cardboard house? Damien and his reaction, God sending the money? His decisions? Counting the money with Anthony, the piles, the collage, their joy? Telling their friends individually and paying them? Taking the whole group of people in the street for pizza? The huge bill? The appeal at the school? Damien giving a thousand pounds? The reaction of the headmaster, that the boys had stolen the money?

9. Anthony, his money sense, calculating, his father wondering where he got it from? Damien and the contrast with values and wanting to give the money to those in need?

10. The teacher, nice, her device of the bin, the appeal for money? Talking through the microphone? Damien and his being impressed, giving the money? Her going to the house after the meeting with the headmaster, the relationship, Anthony opposed, Damien seeing them in the room? Her helping with changing the money into euros? The technique, Damien urgently wanting to go to the toilet, the cashier handing over the money?

11. The stranger, in the fields, threatening Damien, Damien saying that he had money? Anthony being shrewd and bringing the bottle of coins? The stranger’s reappearance, at the concert, Damien running away, the trashing of the house, coming to the house, the threats to Damien, the police catching him?

12. The concert, the Nativity play, the reaction of the parents, Damien as Joseph, his having to run away, St Joseph supplying the line?

13. The re-enactment of the robbery, the explanation of the techniques, the money in the bags, thrown from the train, collected?

14. The discussion about principles, the family and the money, Dad and his decision, the teacher as part of the plan, changing the money, going to the shops, buying everything? The police and the trashed house, later wondering about all the goods?

15. Damien, his taking the money, burning it? His meeting with his mother and its effect on him? Anthony seeing her?

16. The happy ending – a little allegory and fable about money and the contemporary world?