Kolade Agboke
Millions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, searchBox office
The film was a mild box office success, earning £7,830,074.88 worldwide despite a limited release to just 340 theatres, contending with Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds . Around £3,987,642.22 of the final box office was received in the UK alone.
Critical reception
The film received very positive reviews, earning an 88% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.
Roger Ebert awarded it a rating of four out of four stars and declared it "one of the best films of the year." He went on to write, ". . . although Millions uses special effects and materializing saints, it's a film about real ideas, real issues and real kids. It's not sanitized brainless eye candy. Like all great family movies, it plays equally well for adults—maybe better, since we know how unusual it is." It was on his Top 10 movies of 2005 placing at number 10.
Richard Roeper, Roger Ebert's co-host on the television show Ebert & Roeper , called it "One of the most stylish and eccentric films about childhood dreams and heartbreaks that I've ever seen."
Leonard Maltin praised the film upon its DVD release, saying " Millions is a winning and unpredictable fable from England that will charm viewers both young and old."
Christian film critics
Christian publications weighed in on the film, many adding stock to its religious message.
Catholic News Service' s Harry Forbes wrote, "Boyle's offbeat tale—with a clever script by Frank Cottrell Boyce—features good performances all around, especially by the remarkable Etel, who displays just the right innocence and religious fervor in delightful vignettes with the saints. The script dramatizes the themes of money and its complexities and the need for societal philanthropy without being heavy-handed, making this ideal entertainment for older adolescents and up."
Sister Rose Pacatte, F.S.P. (AmericanCatholic.org) commented, " Millions engages, inspires and is just quirky enough to be charming." She added, "Damien’s familiarity with the saints and his recitation of their biographies is accurate and very funny."
However, although praising the film overall for its positive depiction of the role the Christian faith can play in a young boy's life, there were details some felt marred its religious underpinning. As Harry Forbes wrote, "The film contains a couple of mildly crude expressions, some intense episodes of menace, a momentary sexual situation, religious stereotyping, and a brief scene where the brothers look, with boyish curiosity, at a web site for women's bras on a computer
