Millions, a British film directed by Danny Boyle, is a Christmas fable based on the premise that the Bank of England will have to burn a certain quantity of paper money before the conversion to the Euro currency. When the movie begins, the family of Ronnie Cunningham (played by James Nesbitt) is moving from a flat in a Liverpool row house to a townhouse in the suburbs not far from train tracks, presumably because his wife died and he seeks fresh surroundings for his two sons. Since they have many packing boxes, seven-year-old son Damian (played by Alexander Nathan Etel) constructs a makeshift playhouse in the field between the townhouses and the train tracks. One day, a bag comes out of nowhere to flatten the playhouse. In the bag, Damian discovers nearly £265,000 in paper money, which he brings home and hides, telling only his nine-year-old brother Anthony (played by Lewis Owen McGibbon). With two weeks before the conversion from pound sterling to the Euro, they have quite a problem--what to do with so much money. Naturally, they try to buy snack food, but that leaves most of the money unspent, and they are too young to open a bank account without parental approval. They give some to their buddies at the Catholic school that they attend, but again the boys cannot make large purchases without raising unsettling questions. Anthony has a bright idea--to purchase a view condo--, but who would believe that a teenager would have such a large amount of money? Damian, a good Catholic who believes that God sent the money, wants to give the money to the poor, but in the suburbs he cannot find very many poor people, so they feed some of the homeless at a pizza parlor and later stuff some money down the mail chutes of the townhouse residents. After all, Christmas is near, so everyone can then afford big presents. But the police get involved when they observe unusually large Christmas purchases. Then Dorothy (played by Daisy Donovan) arrives at their school with a talking robot in the shape of a trashcan; she is trying to solicit contributions so that African villages can afford to construct water wells. After Damian dumps a roll of £10,000 in the trashcan, school authorities summon Ronnie to confront Damian, who in turn says that he found the money and wants to help the poor. In the process, Ronnie befriends Dorothy, and they continue to date. Meanwhile, a gangster (played by Christopher Fulford) visits the playhouse. A clever classmate had correctly surmised that large amounts of paper money were stolen, tossed off the train at various intervals, and then collected by members of the gang. Now Damian is terrorized by the gangster, who at first ransacks the townhouse but fails to find the hiding place. However, Ronnie and Dorothy learn about the money and decide to make money exchanges in the few days before the conversion. However, exchanges of large amounts will raise suspicion, so there is still a lot left over and no time left to convert the money into Euros, bringing the story to a very unusual ending. Throughout the saga, Damian is visited by various saints (Clare, Francis, Nicholas, Peter, and the Ugandan martyrs of 1885-6 who were tortured when they refused to renounced Christianity), proffering their opinions. Filmviewers will believe that Damian is delusionary until the final scene, when Anthony observes Damian talking to their deceased mum, Maureen (played by Jane Hogarth). Damian is eager for Maureen to become a saint, but she points out that the criteria are very strict; nevertheless, she admits that her one miracle is the birth of Damian, who concludes that the money brought too much trouble until all four principal characters appear to visit a village, doubtless in Uganda, that now has a well providing fresh water. MH
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