Review of Lion (2016) by Art S — 15 May 2018

Based on a true story, a moving uplifting story that is meant to bring tears of joy to your eyes. Except mine. Perhaps the film was over-hyped leading me to have high expectations. Or perhaps it suffered from a contrast effect since I'd watched an intellectually stimulating film the night before.

Or perhaps it just felt like it was trying too hard (with sweeping musical cues to tell me when to feel moved). Whatever the reason, I wasn't grabbed the way others have been. That isn't because scenes of poverty and kids in distress in India don't affect me - Pather Panchali (1955) is one of my favourites.

Here, Sunny Pawar is adorable as the boy (who grows up to be Dev Patel) who is accidentally lost thousands of kilometres from home and then adopted from an orphanage in Calcutta by a Tasmanian couple (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham).

But Patel himself seems somewhat constricted, probably because the script has him ruminating about finding his real mum (a rural labourer) for a good chunk of the running time, pushing aside girlfriend Rooney Mara in the process.

Finally though, Google Earth is there to save him (and indeed Google pitched in to sponsor the film) and we get the ending we'd been advertised. I'm sure this was incredibly dramatic when it happened to the real Saroo Brierley, but I found the narrative to be rather simplistic (even with the brother Mantosh subplot that doesn't really go anywhere).

True, there are some beautiful Australian and Indian vistas to behold and if you aren't curmudgeonly like me, you might feel exalted by these vistas, the music, and the stirring emotional story.