I love this movie so much

What makes it different from others?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

As the story opens, we meet brothers Damian and Anthony, who have just lost their mother. The family moves to a new house to begin life without her, and Damian finds a big bag full of cash. This sounds like a dream come true, but in two weeks' time, England will switch to Euros and the Pound will be worthless. The boys have to come up with creative ways to spend the money (before a very scary man finds it and them).This is a sweet and uplifting movie and I enjoyed it a lot. Damian and Anthony are likable and real, cute without being cutesy. Danny Boyle directed the 2004 film and gave it a just the right amount of heart with a clever script. Damian is an innocent, religious little boy who often "sees" and talks to various saints; these scenes are witty and not disrespectful.This is a warm film the whole family will enjoy and it made me wonder what I would do with a bagful of cash.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself with an untraceable fortune? No doubt, many among us would simply waste the entire amount on luxury items while a select few would plan on for retirement. What about the more evolved choice?The story begins on moving day for the recently widowed Ronald Cunningham (played by James Nesbitt) and his two sons Damian (played by Alex Etel) and Anthony (played by Lewis McGibbon). By way of voice-over, Damian (Etel) informs us that countries such as France, Germany, and Portugal have abandoned their respective currencies in favor of the Euro and that England will soon do the same. Damian is still distraught over his mother's death while Anthony (McGibbon) has seen that the mere mention of it will inspire strangers to bestow gifts upon them. During a neighborhood watch meeting for new residents of their housing development, the Cunninghams and their neighbors, some of whom include Latter-day Saint missionaries, are told by a police officer that some houses will be burgled. The meeting concludes and everyone goes home. On his first day of school, the teacher asks the students to name personal heroes. His was Nelson Mandela, Damian's classmates named soccer players on their favorite teams, and Damian himself named Catholic saints, at least until the teacher deemed one story was not age-appropriate. When they met up between classes, Anthony told Damian that continuing to reference his vast knowledge of saints would cause him to be ostracized. After school, Damian takes the many boxes his family used to move into their home and constructs a fort near the railroad tracks that lie behind it. The fort is destroyed, however, with Damian inside after the passing of one such train. Damian emerges, shaken but otherwise uninjured, and finds a duffel bag was the cause of his fort's destruction and that the bag itself is full of money.This is a wonderful film. Danny Boyle has become a well-known director in recent years thanks to films like Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours, but, to date, this is the only film he's directed that wasn't given an R rating. Etel makes the character of Damian one of the most endearing characters I've ever seen on film, despite his eccentricities. His response when he discovers the money's true origins, after initially believing it was a gift from God, is near- heartbreaking. And the imaginary friends who appear throughout the film, all taking the form of Catholic saints that Damian knows as a result of research, bring unexpected surprises and twists to the film. I wish I had seen this film in theaters, but that opportunity was not available to me. I would, however, encourage everyone to watch it at home as soon as they can.

What do you do if you find a sack of pounds a few days before the UK switches to euros, and you are a rather earnest 7 year old? And you take advice from saints who appear to you personally? Danny Boyle's enchanting little morality tale recounts the dilemma faced by Damian when his natural inclination towards philanthropy falls foul of assorted pressures which pull in different directions.There is a good cast who all give decent performances (although one wonders why the strongly Ulster-accented James Nesbitt was called on to do Manchester), but the film stands on the performances of its young actors, and particularly 10 year old Alex Etel as Damian. Fortunately, he is excellent.

Danny Boyle is a film maker who has a very mixed success . His early career after the success of SHALLOW GRAVE and TRAINSPOTTING was seriously dented by the critical and commercial failure of A LIFE LESS ORDINARY . He made a great come back when 28 DAYS LATER became a surprise hit in the United States . Strangely he decided to follow this up by directing a strange family film type fantasy for BBC films . You have to hand it to Boyle , he's not someone who plays it safe but neither does he do his cause much good by making obscure movies in different genres One problem with Boyle it's been stated is that the second half of his films never maintain the standard of the first . The problem with MILLIONS is that he directs in a literally comic book style , very similar to the end style of A LIFE LESS ORDINARY . Peter Jackson has received heavy criticism by concentrating on visual directorial flourishes on THE LOVELY BONES when he should have concentrated more on narrative and Boyle probably makes the same mistake here when the film needs more of a intimate style than a cartoonish one The story itself becomes much engaging in the second half since it ditches its fantasy element and becomes much more of a conventional film . It's also interesting to realise how much it owes to Boyle's earlier SHALLOW GRAVE and there's a sequence where the protagonists watch an episode of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLONAIRE , a TV show that was at the core of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Having said this it's certainly one of Boyle's lesser films and you can understand why it wasn't an international hit . Perhaps this was the reason that made Boyle direct SUNSHINE , a movie that was supposed to be a science fiction epic but unfortunately got a limited release in the USA .