Review of Lion (2016) by Dirigiblepulp — 25 Feb 2017

This is a really good story, but its structure, pacing and editing threw me off constantly throughout. I couldn't completely engage with the film as a result.

Nearly an hour of the film is spent on little Saroo, yet ultimately this has no bearing on the film as a whole. The film is about Saroo reconnecting with his biological mom, his culture and his heritage. Yet none of these scenes further that. They're from a different movie about the entire life of Saroo and the tribulations of all Indian orphans which this film clearly is not.

I really think this film benefits from a less chronological structure - if his past as a young boy were something he was remembering in pieces in the present. Because ultimately how much of that time does he really remember? It seems unlikely it was all of it since he was so young, so these scenes are really for the benefit of the audience so we spend too much of the film waiting for him to find home because we aren't actively connecting with his past like he is. We already know what happened and the incoming inevitable conclusion.

Still, it's a beautiful story and the conclusion is convincingly emotional and touching. Dev Patel and little Sunny Pawar are both pretty great.