  The thoroughly humble Dev Patel (with Slumdog Millionaire co-star Freida Pinto, left) embodies what has made the film the favourite as best picture over big Hollywood production The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt (right).
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LOS ANGELES -- Riding up in an elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills recently, I ran into Dev Patel, the young Englishman of South Asian heritage who stars in Slumdog Millionaire. Our brief chat became a revelation - and an indicator of why Slumdog is the cause celebre of the Oscars.
There was no cocky swagger, no presumption of grandeur, no sense of entitlement. Patel was modest, keen and overjoyed that the film - which already has given him more than his expected 15 minutes of fame - has so much to say to the world about life, love and the class struggle in India.
I mentioned how disappointed some people feel about Academy Award voters overlooking his performance. No actor from Slumdog was nominated. "That doesn't matter to me," Patel said humbly. "I don't feel I really deserve that. It is the movie that is important."
Patel does not even believe he has become a good actor yet, despite starring in the BBC series Skins. "I was terrible in that," he confesses. "I didn't know what I was doing. But Danny Boyle helped me tremendously on Slumdog Millionaire. He deserves all the credit."
Then I ran into Boyle on another elevator ride. He seemed just as laid-back about what is happening, preferring instead to wax poetic and nostalgic about how much he has enjoyed favour at Canadian film festivals over his career.
Contrast them with the heavyweights on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It has 13 nominations, three more than the 10 meted out to Slumdog. Button director David Fincher is a moody, exacting, American power player. Boyle is a funky Briton who makes eccentric choices. While Patel is happy not being nominated, Button is played by superstar Brad Pitt, who is nominated as best actor and clearly enjoying the limelight again as "a serious actor." He has not had a role with this much meat on the bones since Fincher's Fight Club.
Given that Pitt's romantic partner, Angelina Jolie, is also nominated -- as best actress for Changeling -- the glamour couple also will be the focal point of the Oscars ceremony. And there seems to be a corporate push behind Button, a groundswell of Hollywood sentiment for one of its own mega-projects to bring home the most golden-guy statuettes.
It may not happen as best picture. Slumdog, the upstart from another culture, looks poised to knock off its big league competition. Oddly, no other nominee even seems to be in contention. Each of Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader is not in the conversation for best picture, although each may score in other categories, such as Sean Penn for best actor in Milk. There is more fuss being made about the exclusion of The Dark Knight from this race -- and the inclusion of the late Heath Ledger as a posthumous nominee for best supporting actor -- than there is serious talk about anything other than a Button vs. Slumdog struggle for the top prize.
This is the classic David and Goliath. Button is the big, lumbering giant, a $150- million production that has worked its way to $197 million-plus in worldwide box office. The project, like many epic-sized movies, has been in development for years, in its case since 1994. At one point, Ron Howard was going to direct John Travolta as Benjamin Button. At another, Steven Spielberg was going to direct Tom Cruise. Spike Jonze held talks to direct. Who knows what star would have been his Button.
In contrast, Slumdog is a modest, $15-million independent picture made out of the mainstream. It has made $137 million worldwide. It tells the story of a street kid in Mumbai, India, who rises out of the roil of his slum through success on a TV game show that tests his intelligence.
There has been a backlash, some of it suspiciously being fanned by sources in Hollywood. Street protests in India have objected to the title, and its implication that slum dwellers are "dogs", as if taking the title apart on a literal basis has value. Others questioned the treatment of two young slum dwellers who were given prominent support roles, as if treating them well but paying them a modest wage was an exploitation. That issue has been debunked by the Slumdog producers, who revealed that each of the youngsters has also been given a fund that will finance his education.
Attacks on Slumdog Millionaire seem to confirm what is now obvious: That, even without arrogance, it is now the favourite to triumph tonight, against all the early odds.
