Happy ever after...
We've always flocked to feel-good movies like multi-Oscar nominated Slumdog Millionaire in hard times ... but which ones do we love the best? Susan Daly reports
Torture, child abuse, sexual slavery and grinding poverty are not normal fodder for a fun night out. The movie Slumdog Millionaire, currently in cinemas, touches on all of these issues -- yet has been endorsed as a feel-good film by audiences and critics.
Set in Mumbai, it tells the tale of soft-hearted street orphan Jamal. By dint of destiny, genius or plain old-fashioned cheating, he wins 10 million rupees (€160,000) in the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The creepy show host -- think Chris Tarrant possessed of the evil spirit of Anne Robinson -- has Jamal arrested on suspicion of fraud. Between stints of intense police 'interrogation techniques', Jamal's extraordinary life story is recounted in flashbacks.
Here is where director Danny Boyle hits on the formula that has been sending cinemagoers home with a warm feeling in their chest where the January blues used to be. For every tragedy in Jamal's tale, there is a balancing note of redemption. The ending of the film even finds room for a spirited Bollywood dance on a train platform.
The release of Slumdog is timely for the image of an India still reeling from senseless terrorist massacres. The Mumbai we see in Slumdog Millionaire is a hotbed of corruption, organised crime and class segregation, but at least there is a sense that destiny and the gods can conspire to help a good guy out.
When times get rough, audiences want to immerse themselves in a world that makes sense. They want to see true love triumph, justice prevail and the bad guys punished in the most heinous manner possible.
Those who know about these things predict that global economic difficulties will coincide with a rise in feel-good movies.
The so-called Golden Age of cinema was kickstarted by the Great Depression of the 1930s. A night at the movies provided one of the few outlets for escapism, be it a lavishly produced musical featuring Fred Astaire or acerbic comedies from the Marx Brothers. Gangster epics such as Public Enemy and Angels With Dirty Faces -- while hardly fuzzy-hearted -- appealed to a public disillusioned with traditional authority figures. The outsider rising to the top against the odds, even through shocking violence, was an appealing fantasy.
Movie-viewing no longer necessitates a trip to a theatre, with the advent of DVDs, downloadables and digital. Nonetheless, cinema receipts saw a hefty rise over normal takings in the last six months of 2008.
Slumdog Millionaire shows a feel-good movie doesn't have to be syrupy, or ignore the world's evils. It just has to find a path through them, while simultaneously increasing our faith in humanity.
Movies with a relentless energy like Strictly Ballroom, or Save The Last Dance, or Mad Hot Ballroom, or Dirty Dancing (spot the theme); or those with a sizzling soundtrack (Mamma Mia, O Brother Where Art Thou, Singing In The Rain) get audiences dancing in the aisles.
Presenting your lead character as a sympathetic underdog in the style of Rocky Balboa is an express ticket to the heart of an audience. Their struggle through injustice/poverty/disease should be rewarded with triumph. Tim Robbins finding peace at the close of The Shawshank Redemption makes all the prison brutality bearable; the death of Jon Voigt just makes The Champ unbearably cruel.
Humour is a vital ingredient for the feel-good movie. There isn't a heavy cinematic premise that can't be leavened with a touch of wit. (Suicidal George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life finds the time to poke fun at the drunken angel he has been assigned: "Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you?")
Most importantly, feel-good movies do not have to be dumb. There is an assumption that a heartwarming movie belongs in the bargain bin marked corny, sentimental or, worst of all, 'chick flick'. Thelma and Louise is a film concerned with female empowerment and two women taking to the open road. On paper, it sounds like an adaptation of a Cecelia Ahern novel; on screen it's a life-affirming joy, although the two protagonists do indeed drive off a cliff.
Feel-good films are best enjoyed as a communal experience. A consumer study carried out two years ago showed that groups of people who watched a movie together laughed and cried more en masse than individuals watching alone. When sharing an experience, people take emotional cues from each other. It fosters the feeling that, hey, we're all in this together.
And right now, we want to feel better together.
