Review of Lion (2016) by William W — 19 Sep 2018

Lion tells the endearing true story of a boy named Saroo and his turbulent journey of self-exploration. Saroo is played to perfection in the first act by newcomer Sunny Pawar who perfectly illustrates the struggles someone his age might be dealing with when thrust into such abrupt change. The struggles of this young man are handled perfectly by director Garth Davis, making certain not to rely too much on increasingly awful situation after awful situation to allow the audience to sympathize with Saroo, instead relying on the performance of Pawar to accurately depict this child's many struggles. The gorgeous cinematography displayed throughout the film that lights up the slums of India and the suburbs of Tanzania alike is made first apparent from the third scene of the film, when Saroo is asleep at the train station, waiting for his brother, onward, becoming one of the shining points throughout the film.

The second act, despite brilliant performances from Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, marks the film's weakest point. After the wonderful set-up in the first act of Saroo's sadness for his true family, the film almost takes a detour, instead favoring adding in development's into Saroo's interest as well as telling a romantic subplot that, while not completely unwarranted, greatly slows down the pace of the film. Almost all of the development into Saroo's collegiate endeavors, is instantly tossed aside as soon as Saroo starts to find himself, rendering that section of the film completely meaningless.

The third act of the film, while not as great as the first, greatly improves on the mistakes of the second and returns to the Saroo-centrical nature of the first act. The third act not only gives the necessarily happy conclusion to Saroo's arc of finding his "home," it does this while masterfully finishing the subplot between Saroo and his Australian mother. The flaws of the third act mainly rely on its follow up of the second act which creates divides in terms of pacing and general plot development. While Saroo's discovery of his home may seem abrupt due to the unnecessarily slow nature of the second act, it is mostly in line with the pacing of the first act of the film. Lion, despite its flawed second act, is an extremely well-done and satisfying film that is buoyed by fantastic performances from the leads as well as an incredibly uplifting ending that leaves the audience, just like Saroo, in tears of joy.