Review of Lion (2016) by Armando G — 24 Feb 2017

It's odd that Lion is a film based on a true story, yet its premise seems familiar: a young man searches for the family he was separated from as a young boy. Yet, the events in Lion are so improbable-but-true that you can't help but be surprised and awed at how the life its main character, Saroo Brierly, unfolded. Lion tugs at your heartstrings and stirs up emotions in all the ways you would expect and... it works. If you cry at movies, you'll likely feel the tears flow while watching Lion and that's okay.

There are two distinct parts to Lion. In the first half, we see little Saroo living with his mother and older brother in a poor rural village in India. His older brother, Guddu, takes random chores and odd jobs to help support their family. One night, a new job means traveling by train at night. Saroo is eager and excited to help, and Guddu reluctantly brings him along. Guddu leaves Saroo at a train station and tells him to wait while he sees about the job. Saroo falls asleep and wakes up in the middle of the night to find the train station deserted. He calls out for his brother and looks for him on an out of service train which springs into service and takes him thousands of miles away from his home.

Young Sunny Pawar, who plays Saroo as a child, is remarkably good on screen. His wide-eyed precociousness helps him survive on the streets of Calcutta where he doesn't speak the local language and can't pronounce the name of his hometown. He finds his way into an orphanage that seems too similar to a prison, but it is here that he is adopted by an Australian couple played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham.

A jump in time takes us to the second part of the film. As a young man, Saroo, now played by Dev Patel, feels more Australian than Indian. He is disconnected from his Indian heritage until a chance sense memory inspires him to track down his original home and mother and brother. It is at this point that Lion treads close to cliché territory. Dev Patel has many scenes where he is moody, depressed, and conflicted about his quest. Does searching for his real mother mean he's ungrateful to his adoptive mother? The movie seems more concerned with the mechanics of how he finds out where his childhood village in India is (with much internet research and Google Earth), than with what is going on inside of the characters. Older Saroo's emotions, which should be driving the second half of Lion, feel more obligatory than earned. That's not to say that when the big scenes in this movie come they don't bring pathos. The final scenes of Lion are genuinely moving.

I wouldn't say that Lion is an uneven film, but from a technical standpoint the best part of Lion is young Saroo's near dialogue free journey through the streets of Calcutta. He encounters uncaring adults, seemingly kind but actually sinister adults, and journeys by foot in a direction that he hopes will take him home. Director Garth Davis keeps the camera and the audience at a distance from young Saroo, giving this sequence the feel of a documentary. Every unlikely encounter young Saroo has seems unfortunately believable. It is a piece of incredible filmmaking that the rest of Lion doesn't equal.

Dev Patel has some good scenes of emotional dialogue with Kidman and Rooney Mara, playing his supportive girlfriend. Mara is good, as always, but doesn't have much else to do aside from be supportive. The actors handle these scenes well-Patel and Kidman have picked up Supporting Actor and Actress Oscar nominations, respectively. It is their interactions that keep the audience engaged. This is ultimately an uplifting and heartwarming story and the sentiment doesn't feel forced. You may feel like you've seen this kind of movie before, and I'm sure you have, but Lion is still worth watching.