Lion (2016)

Directed by Garth Davis 

Written by Luke Davies (screenplay) and Saroo Brierley (adapted from his book "A Long Way Home")

Starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and Sunny Pawar

     A breathtaking story about a young Indian boy who gets lost in the overly populated Calcutta, India- nearly a thousand miles away from his home- and his journey to find home after 20 years of living with his new family in Tasmania. Lion is adapted from the real life story of Saroo Brierley- a story in which he wrote about in his book: "A Long Way Home."

     The journey starts with 5-year old Saroo (played by Sunny Pawar) living his impoverished life in the shadow of his older brother, Guddu. The two complete chores together to help their mother, Kamla (Pryanka Bose) put food on the table. One day, Guddu informs his younger brother of his impending trip to a distant city via train, to look for work. Being a stubborn small kid who just wants to be like his older brother, Saroo insists that he must come along. After many initial rejections to this request, Guddu finally gives in and agrees to let him come along.  Along the way, the two become separated and Saroo finds himself embarking on a train to the distant Calcutta- where he doesn't know the language, the people, or even the name of the village where he is from. After spending a lot of time on the crowded streets of this Indian city, Saroo is adopted by a loving Australian couple, Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). After growing up with this new life and new family, he has only dim memories of his life and family back in India. Once Saroo hits adulthood (now played by Dev Patel), he decided to locate his home via Google Earth, and hopefully be reunited with his mother and brother. 

     The first half of Lion is set in India with Saroo being a small child. Although the only english we get during this half of the movie is in subtitles- it is beautifully done, and I believe the best part of the film. Lion sets a very strong pace in the beginning of the movie. Seeing a child as young as Saroo all on his own in such a new, foreign territory, is heartbreaking and keeps us on the edge of our seat, waiting to find out his fate. Davis effectively captures the boys confusion and fear over being lost. I wasn't quite ready for the transition to adult Saroo, considering how adorable the young version of him is- but the handsome Dev Patel made that a bit easier. The second half of the movie wasn't as great as the first unfortunately. Granted there is a 20 year difference between he two parts of the film, I just felt the second half lost some momentum from the climatic first half. The story in the second half lacks the intensity from the first, and the character is less interesting as an adult. That is to say nothing bad about Patel's performance, however. 

     Patel and Pawar both play such different performances of the same character but both do an incredible job. This is the first role for Sunny Pawar, and he barely speaks any english- so to see him take on this powerful role was great. Aside from these two actors, the few supporting roles in this film are very limited. Rooney Mara plays Saroo's girlfriend, and really didn't have enough screen time for me to form an opinion on her performance. Kidman also had limited screen time but played a powerful role. She was hand-picked by the real life Sue Brierley to play this role. She already had the accent even! Patel and Kidman both scored oscar nominations for this film, as they deserved. 

     Lion is an amazing tale that for Davis and the cast, was much anticipated to tell. Davis shot footage for a "60 minutes" special on the story of Saroo- and that footage can be seen at the end of the film. Patel really immersed himself in the history of his character in order to play him to the best of his abilities. That is what I like so much about this film- the determination behind the makers to bring it life. 

I give Lion a... 

7/10