After “28 Days Later,” Danny Boyle had the biggest international hit of his career up to that point. I don't think revitalizing the zombie movie with probably the most talked-about horror film of that year gave the director a blank check exactly. However, he probably had a wide range of choice for what he could do next. Up to that point, the director had made gritty stories of social isolation, class division, and substance abuse his bread and butter. As your encore to a horror movie defined by its extra grimy visual style, what do you choose? If you're this guy, you decide to make a kid's movie. Boyle would team with celebrated screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce to craft what was, for many years, the only film in the director's career that isn't rated R. It remains the only Danny Boyle movie you can watch on the vanilla version of Disney+ right now, to give you an idea of “Millions'” family-friendly content. How did a filmmaker known for far grittier material adapt to this wild change in direction?
Following the death of their mother, nine year old Damian, his twelve year old brother Anthony, and their dad move into the suburbs of Widnes. Damian, who has a hyper-focus on stories of Catholic saints and Christian martyrs, has trouble making friends. While playing in a cardboard box on the side of a railway, a bag full of British pounds notes falls into his lap. At the end of the year, the United Kingdom is adopting the Euro as its official currency, making the money worthless. With Christmas around the corner, Damian decides to give the money to those in need around his town. Anthony convinces him to keep the amount a secret, the brothers performing these good acts in secret. Unfortunately, money doesn't materialize out of thin air. The boys have unknowingly swiped a cache of stolen pounds from a bank robber, who is on their trail. This dovetails with the boys having far more personal problems in their lives.
The opening minutes of “Millions” makes one thing certain: Danny Boyle did not change any of his style when making a movie for a family-friendly audience. Very shortly after the film begins, the audience is privy to the boys' imaginative flights of fancy. They picture their new home being built on the spot. Throughout “Millions,” there are multiple montages brought together by high-energy editing. Multiple frames appear on-screen several times. Quirky camera angles are chosen for a number of key shots, such as assuming the perspective of a motorized trash can as it drives through a crowded school. There's some British electronic music on the soundtrack too. One specific sequence has another boy describing the daring heist that resulted in these pound notes disappearing from a bank, which feels exactly like something that could have appeared in any of his prior films. That is the moment, in fact, that I noticed “Millions” plays a bit like a kid-friendly version of “Shallow Grave.”
However, “Millions” is not a movie about paranoia and selfishness the way “Shallow Grave” was. Out of Boyle's past work, tonally, it most resembles “A Life Less Ordinary.” I mean, that motorized trashcan that demands people give it money is a lot like the robot janitors in that movie. What I truly mean by this comparison is that “Millions” sees the director embracing his whimsical side in a way we've only previously seen in that one. This is most evident in the elaborate fantasy sequences Damian has. He often imagines conversations with the various saints he admires. These fantastical spirits sometimes have golden halos over their heads. When Saint Nicholas – much more in-line with Catholic tradition than Santa Claus ones – appears, his dialogue is in subtitled Greek. Saint Clare of Assisi puffs on a cigarette during their conversation, one example of the not exactly saintly behavior we see these visions perform. It is, in other words, cute. It might even be classified as cutesy, depending on how you feel about magical-realism and kids learning valuable life lessons from down-to-Earth versions of historical figures. Still, it's a lot less all-over-the-place than “A Life Less Ordinary” was. A little kid being the main character makes imaginative fantasy sequences a lot easier to accept.
That Damian's day dreams are so specific is also interesting. “A Life Less Ordinary” was the most blatant example of Boyle including themes of religious imagery in his movies, of literal angels and the will of heaven playing a big role in the story. “Millions” sees this idea coming back to the surface in a much less aggressively quirky way. Damian is really fascinated with saints. He knows everything about the subject of Christian martyrdom, including the gory details of their sacrifices. He often deploys this information at length, seemingly unable to read how his info-dumps make his teachers and classmates uncomfortable. When he hears someone else mention his obsession, he gets excited and perks up. At one point, his brother begs him not to be weird and off-putting. I have no idea if Cottrell-Boyce or Boyle intended this reading but, when watched in 2025, the conclusions is impossible to avoid: Damian is definitely neuro-divergent and most likely on the autism spectrum.
Speaking as someone recently diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, this possibly unintentional depiction of the condition strikes me as one of the better cinematic reading. The young star of the film, Alex Etel, plays Damian as somewhat literal in his thinking. He seems to have difficulty reading the intentions and actions of the others. That his favorite topic is an extremely niche one feels a lot more specific to me than the usual short hands writers use to establish autistic characters. It's only in retrospect that I realize Damian's differing perspective making him conditioned to help people might classify this as an example of the unfortunate “Inspirationally Disadvantaged” trope. That the word autism or Aspergers is never uttered in this script, that the film aligns so closely with his point-of-view, gives him far more depth than most examples of the condition on-screen. The boy is not defined by his brain chemistry nor do his eccentricities control him. He has an actual personality.
All of the above marks “Millions” as a kids movie, through and through. It is about how children observe the world and concerned with the same things they are concerned with. That doesn't mean “Millions” is overly juvenile. Most family movies with the premise of kids suddenly coming into a bag full of money would play strictly as comedy. You'd have the youngsters spending the cash on ridiculous luxuries, perhaps in service of a moral about responsibility. “Millions” is grappling with themes a lot heavier than that. Damian considers the money appearing to be a miracle. He doesn't think about that the cash obviously came from somewhere. When that conclusion is foisted upon him, he has a conversation with St. Peter about what a “miracle” truly is.
When the dad finally discovers the money, it's in the aftermath of their home being burglarized. Rather than give the cash away, as the boys had been doing, he spends it on stuff the family needs and a lot of stuff they want too. Is this a better or worst use of that money than giving it to charity? Does performing acts of kindness for others mean you deserve to have some nice stuff too? Or is returning the pounds to the government that intends on destroying it the most “correct” options? Eventually, the boy reaches a conclusion not that different from what “Shallow Grave” implied: Money doesn't have much of anything to do with what's right at all. These are serious considerations to have, quite heavy for a movie ostensibly targeted at ten year olds. “Millions” never judges its characters for any of the actions they choose. The audience, no matter how young they may be, are left room to come to their own conclusions.
That's the not the only surprising way “Millions” doesn't talk down to its audience. This is, in many ways, a traditional coming of age story. The brothers are close but also sometimes at odds with each other. Anthony is a little older than Damian, more aware of their situation than his brother. He ogles an online bra catalogue at one point, the titillating element going over Damian's head. Ultimately, as different as the boys can be, they are still brothers. Lewis Owen McGibbon, who only has two other acting credits outside of this film, gives a naturalistic and lived-in performance. “Millions” does an excellent job of making it seem like the camera happens to be catching the normal, expected interactions between these young boys totally by chance. The weight and conflict between the brothers is a big reason why that works so well.
The relaxed, realistic tone that “Millions” captures is also reflected in how the film handles its most dramatic plot points. The Christmas setting, which eventually involves Damian acting in a nativity play, contrasts with the story of charity and giving. The death of the boys' mother always lingers in the background. Every time Damian talks to a saint, he asks them if there's a new saint in heaven yet, meaning he's waiting to hear back from his mom. At one point, Anthony uses the death of their mom as an excuse to escape punishment in school. As their dad begins a romance with another woman, the older brother becomes resentful of both their father trying to "replace" their mom and of his younger brother's naive inability to process the death. It's another way the film is surprisingly complicated in handling a subject that most kids movies would treat in a far more simplistic manner. Grief is complicated and everyone, kids included, handle it differently.
What I'm saying is that "Millions" sees Danny Boyle adapting to the kid-friendly genre without sacrificing any of the style or substance that made most of his previous films good. In fact, you can tell he made this seemingly uncharacteristic movie directly after a horror flick. The villain in "Millions" is referred to only as "The Poor Man." He approaches Damian by the train tracks and the boy takes his claim of being an innocent wanderer at face value. (Anthony quickly becomes concerned that the man's interest in his brother is unwholesome in a decidedly more predatory fashion, another example of the film nodding at heavier themes than you'd expect.) He is, in fact, one of the robbers who took the money in the first place. He begins to pursue and blackmail the boy, determined to get his loot back. This manifests as Damian having reoccurring nightmares about the man's hand reaching for the mail slot or lurking in the wings of the school auditorium. It's actually kind of creepy. The antagonist becomes a representation of the guilt Damian feels for taking money that wasn't his, an idea that is processed in a way a kid that age could understand: Namely, a boogeyman coming to get him.
Perhaps another reason "Millions" can get away with some of its more whimsical, fantastical touches is because the movie subtly establishes itself as taking place in a different world than ours right from the get-go. As an ignorant Yank, I was only vaguely aware of this but "Millions'" entire premise hinges on an event that did not happen in reality. The United Kingdom did not accept the Euro as their official form of currency. The British Pound is still in use, making the climatic crux of the film – spending all that money before it becomes valueless at the stroke of midnight – an invention of the writer. I don't know if Cottrell-Boyce and Boyle made the film with the expectation that the United Kingdom would eventually adopt the Euro or if the concept was always approached entirely as a "what if?" scenario. Either way, that makes "Millions" an extremely low-key work of alternate universe fiction. It's always a work of fantasy, Damian's daydreams being a more personal reflection of that.
At one point, early in development, "Millions" was going to be a musical. Boyle hoped Noel Gallagher, famous as the songwriter and guitarist of the definitive nineties Britrock band and for publicly bickering with his brother, would write the songs. That certainly would have brought an all-together different layer to the theme of sibling rivalry in the story. Not to mention making the whimsical touches fit right in. Instead, Frank Cottrell-Boyce adopted his own screenplay into a novel while filming was underway. The book came out a little before the film and would win an award for excellence in British children's literature. The cinematic "Millions" made a modest little profit at the box office, unsurprisingly doing better in England than abroad. It's among the director's more overlooked films but I found it charming and sweet with a lot more depth, maturity, and style than is usually asked of for family-friendly entertainment. It's a movie from the director of "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later" that you can watch with your mom and she'll probably like it too. [Grade: B]
Following the death of their mother, nine year old Damian, his twelve year old brother Anthony, and their dad move into the suburbs of Widnes. Damian, who has a hyper-focus on stories of Catholic saints and Christian martyrs, has trouble making friends. While playing in a cardboard box on the side of a railway, a bag full of British pounds notes falls into his lap. At the end of the year, the United Kingdom is adopting the Euro as its official currency, making the money worthless. With Christmas around the corner, Damian decides to give the money to those in need around his town. Anthony convinces him to keep the amount a secret, the brothers performing these good acts in secret. Unfortunately, money doesn't materialize out of thin air. The boys have unknowingly swiped a cache of stolen pounds from a bank robber, who is on their trail. This dovetails with the boys having far more personal problems in their lives.
The opening minutes of “Millions” makes one thing certain: Danny Boyle did not change any of his style when making a movie for a family-friendly audience. Very shortly after the film begins, the audience is privy to the boys' imaginative flights of fancy. They picture their new home being built on the spot. Throughout “Millions,” there are multiple montages brought together by high-energy editing. Multiple frames appear on-screen several times. Quirky camera angles are chosen for a number of key shots, such as assuming the perspective of a motorized trash can as it drives through a crowded school. There's some British electronic music on the soundtrack too. One specific sequence has another boy describing the daring heist that resulted in these pound notes disappearing from a bank, which feels exactly like something that could have appeared in any of his prior films. That is the moment, in fact, that I noticed “Millions” plays a bit like a kid-friendly version of “Shallow Grave.”
That Damian's day dreams are so specific is also interesting. “A Life Less Ordinary” was the most blatant example of Boyle including themes of religious imagery in his movies, of literal angels and the will of heaven playing a big role in the story. “Millions” sees this idea coming back to the surface in a much less aggressively quirky way. Damian is really fascinated with saints. He knows everything about the subject of Christian martyrdom, including the gory details of their sacrifices. He often deploys this information at length, seemingly unable to read how his info-dumps make his teachers and classmates uncomfortable. When he hears someone else mention his obsession, he gets excited and perks up. At one point, his brother begs him not to be weird and off-putting. I have no idea if Cottrell-Boyce or Boyle intended this reading but, when watched in 2025, the conclusions is impossible to avoid: Damian is definitely neuro-divergent and most likely on the autism spectrum.
Speaking as someone recently diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, this possibly unintentional depiction of the condition strikes me as one of the better cinematic reading. The young star of the film, Alex Etel, plays Damian as somewhat literal in his thinking. He seems to have difficulty reading the intentions and actions of the others. That his favorite topic is an extremely niche one feels a lot more specific to me than the usual short hands writers use to establish autistic characters. It's only in retrospect that I realize Damian's differing perspective making him conditioned to help people might classify this as an example of the unfortunate “Inspirationally Disadvantaged” trope. That the word autism or Aspergers is never uttered in this script, that the film aligns so closely with his point-of-view, gives him far more depth than most examples of the condition on-screen. The boy is not defined by his brain chemistry nor do his eccentricities control him. He has an actual personality.
When the dad finally discovers the money, it's in the aftermath of their home being burglarized. Rather than give the cash away, as the boys had been doing, he spends it on stuff the family needs and a lot of stuff they want too. Is this a better or worst use of that money than giving it to charity? Does performing acts of kindness for others mean you deserve to have some nice stuff too? Or is returning the pounds to the government that intends on destroying it the most “correct” options? Eventually, the boy reaches a conclusion not that different from what “Shallow Grave” implied: Money doesn't have much of anything to do with what's right at all. These are serious considerations to have, quite heavy for a movie ostensibly targeted at ten year olds. “Millions” never judges its characters for any of the actions they choose. The audience, no matter how young they may be, are left room to come to their own conclusions.
That's the not the only surprising way “Millions” doesn't talk down to its audience. This is, in many ways, a traditional coming of age story. The brothers are close but also sometimes at odds with each other. Anthony is a little older than Damian, more aware of their situation than his brother. He ogles an online bra catalogue at one point, the titillating element going over Damian's head. Ultimately, as different as the boys can be, they are still brothers. Lewis Owen McGibbon, who only has two other acting credits outside of this film, gives a naturalistic and lived-in performance. “Millions” does an excellent job of making it seem like the camera happens to be catching the normal, expected interactions between these young boys totally by chance. The weight and conflict between the brothers is a big reason why that works so well.
What I'm saying is that "Millions" sees Danny Boyle adapting to the kid-friendly genre without sacrificing any of the style or substance that made most of his previous films good. In fact, you can tell he made this seemingly uncharacteristic movie directly after a horror flick. The villain in "Millions" is referred to only as "The Poor Man." He approaches Damian by the train tracks and the boy takes his claim of being an innocent wanderer at face value. (Anthony quickly becomes concerned that the man's interest in his brother is unwholesome in a decidedly more predatory fashion, another example of the film nodding at heavier themes than you'd expect.) He is, in fact, one of the robbers who took the money in the first place. He begins to pursue and blackmail the boy, determined to get his loot back. This manifests as Damian having reoccurring nightmares about the man's hand reaching for the mail slot or lurking in the wings of the school auditorium. It's actually kind of creepy. The antagonist becomes a representation of the guilt Damian feels for taking money that wasn't his, an idea that is processed in a way a kid that age could understand: Namely, a boogeyman coming to get him.
Perhaps another reason "Millions" can get away with some of its more whimsical, fantastical touches is because the movie subtly establishes itself as taking place in a different world than ours right from the get-go. As an ignorant Yank, I was only vaguely aware of this but "Millions'" entire premise hinges on an event that did not happen in reality. The United Kingdom did not accept the Euro as their official form of currency. The British Pound is still in use, making the climatic crux of the film – spending all that money before it becomes valueless at the stroke of midnight – an invention of the writer. I don't know if Cottrell-Boyce and Boyle made the film with the expectation that the United Kingdom would eventually adopt the Euro or if the concept was always approached entirely as a "what if?" scenario. Either way, that makes "Millions" an extremely low-key work of alternate universe fiction. It's always a work of fantasy, Damian's daydreams being a more personal reflection of that.
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