Today is the feast of All Saints, when we celebrate all those holy men and women who intercede for us in heaven. Despite what some non-Catholic critics claim, we don’t worship the saints the way that the ancient Romans venerated the minor gods of sewers or business deals. The saints aren’t demigods; in fact, their humanity is exactly what makes them important. While we have a high priest in Christ who can “sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb 4:15), the saints provide a model that we often find even more relatable. Their lives and deeds were extraordinary, but their path to holiness was the same as ours: trial and error, sin and redemption, prayer and work.
Damian (Alex Etel), the 9-year-old British protagonist of “Millions” (2004)—directed by Danny Boyle and written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, based on his novel of the same name—often turns to the saints for guidance. And in his case, the saints talk back. St. Clare of Assisi appears in his cardboard clubhouse, St. Peter in his room and St. Joseph whispers advice backstage at a Nativity pageant. He inherited his faith from his mother who has recently passed away—a wound that Damian, his older brother Anthony (Lewis Owen McGibbon) and father Ronnie (James Nesbitt) still feel keenly. They have just moved into a new house by the railroad tracks, and started at a new school where Damian’s earnest description of St. Catherine of Alexandria’s martyrdom doesn’t help him make friends.
Then, a miracle: A duffel bag flies from a passing train and crashes through Damian’s clubhouse. Inside he discovers thousands, maybe millions, of pounds sterling. In the film’s very slight alternate history, the United Kingdom is transferring its currency to the Euro, meaning that in a few days’ time the pound will be worthless: All remaining notes must be transferred or spent. Damian believes that the money came from God, and Anthony insists that—because the government was going to burn the surplus notes anyway—there is no harm in using it. For Anthony, that means bribing other kids at school to become his entourage and shopping for jet skis online. But Damian plans to use the money to do good—plans that are threatened when a sinister man (Christopher Fulford) comes looking for it. Throughout this moral conundrum, Damian turns to the saints for advice.
Damian’s relationship with the saints is stylized and often comical, but it also feels honest (it helps that writer Cottrell-Boyce is a practicing Catholic and director Boyle was raised in the faith, although he no longer practices). The saints don’t simply lecture Damian on what he should do, but share from their own experience. St. Francis of Assisi inspires Damian to use the money to serve the poor, and the Martyrs of Uganda recommend building clean water wells in their home country. Later, St. Peter offers a unique spin on the story of the feeding of the 5,000, teaching Damian that one act of generosity often inspires others.
But things soon become more complicated. The money makes Anthony materialistic and paranoid, and Damian wonders if money itself corrupts the human soul. Even worse, he eventually learns that the money was stolen as part of a massive heist: The bag didn’t fall from the heavens, but was tossed from the train by a robber who planned on retrieving it later. He wrestles with the question of whether the money can do any good coming from dishonest origins.
These would be difficult questions for anyone to navigate, much less a 9-year-old boy. We see how adults like his mild-mannered father and charity worker Dorothy (Daisy Donovan) lose their sense of perspective when faced with a pile of money. But for all of his moral wrestling, Damian is remarkably clear-eyed. That’s thanks in large part to the inspiration of the saints— perhaps most of all his mother, who shaped his generous heart and ethical sense before her death.
As we face the complications and dilemmas of our own lives, maybe we should take a lesson from Damian and turn to the saints. Instead of demigods, think of them as our older siblings in the church: people who have seen it all before, made many of the same mistakes we do and still found ways to serve God and others. Through their witness and intercession we can grow in holiness and get a little closer to becoming saints ourselves.
“Millions” is streaming on Disney+.
