Lion Review

PG13: Thematic Material and Some Sensuality

2 Hrs and 0 Minutes

The Weinstein Company, See-Saw Films, Aquarius Films, Screen Australia, Sunstar Entertainment

Cast: Sunny Pawar, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.

REVIEW: Little known fact about myself. Some of my favorite films of all time are set in India. If it is a Bollywood/Hollywood production the only few I've seen has stood out to me as some of my favorite films of all time such as My Name is Khan and Slumdog Millionaire. When it's awards season and films like this are released, they are centered in a deep place in my heart. Wait this isn’t a Hollywood/Bollywood film? This is an Australian-American-British film? Oh.

THE GOOD:  There are so many compelling stories set on children learning the harsh realities of the world they live in and Lion is one of those stories. From the beginning, the film gradually begins to break your heart. The film immediately engages you into Saroo’s childhood from when he gets lost to when he’s adopted. The film is split into two halves where the first hour focuses on Saroo’s sad and depressing journey going through the hell of surviving in India all alone and the second focuses on Saroo’s journey finding his home. It doesn’t show either the slums or the rich it just shows India.

The film features a largely known cast who has been in other Award nominated films, but the film truly held by Sunny Pawer who plays Young Saroo. For the first hour, this is HIS movie. It is Patel, Mara, and Kidman that the film markets but Pawar’s performance is truly outstanding. He is this innocent and adorable kid who goes through a very mature and adult journey much stronger than he does when he comes an actual adult. His performance is truly much more powerful than any child actor’s performance for the past decade. His performance is handled more maturely than Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and much more innocently heartbreaking than Jacob Tremblay in Room. He may be a very young actor with this film being his major role and first role in general, but his performance is one of the best I’ve seen this year. Director Garth Davis made this kid shine more than anyone else in the cast bar none. I genuinely found myself crying twice during the duration of his story. It doesn't matter how old this kid is, his performance deserves a lot of accolades for this upcoming season.

THE BAD: As much I praise the film’s first half, the second half where you have Saroo as a full grown adult nearly destroys everything the first half builds up. The film drives smoothly reaching it’s destination towards the heart of the audience for the first hour but then it takes a drastic left turn on the freeway and crashes. Just like Saroo the film just becomes lost relying on flashbacks and artsy cinematography to carry the film. The second half of the film turns into an entirely different movie. It somehow turns from an emotional drama that hit the right beats into a cinematically coming of age artsy indie melodrama that feels like “Oscar bait.” The story starts to tie into the first half where how growing up privileged in Australia affected him as he longs for his true family. Unfortunately, that story is consistently derailed. 

Patel does a great job, but his character diminishes into a mopey adult that mopes around. Everything that you loved about Saroo as a child is gone when he’s an adult . The film cuts to literally two years after he learns about Google Earth searching for his home and is still doing exactly the same two years later. Especially the way this film plays out can be considered a commercial for Google Earth. Rooney Mara is somewhat wasted as Saroo’s girlfriend where their relationship just turns into unnecessary melodrama for the film. There're numerous scenes where they just stare into each other’s eyes as you just want the central story to move along. 

Another issue the film has is Nicole Kidman and David Wenham. Not that they are bad but the film makes some odd choices with them. I mean if you have a film with Nicole Kidman you have to use her to your full advantage and they do and she does an amazing job. She’s not in it much, but she does have that Best Supporting Actress scene where she gives her grown adopted son a speech that is heartbreaking. The issue I have with them is their lack of aging. Early on, Saroo is introduced to his foster parents by description and photographs where they look significantly older. Yet when he meets them, they are young and energetic as can be. Even when the film cuts to 20 years later, they don’t even age. Wenham ages but Kidman looks exactly the same. I just ask for a little consistency with time jumps and aging. The film barely even uses Wenham who is just there to say “mate” every now and then. This is going to be the villain in Marvel’s upcomingNetflix series Iron Fist and he's barely even used in the film. He’s marketed in the trailer but he never stands out in a scene on his own. Between the two it is Kidman who steals the show even when Patel isn’t really doing it, she just handles scenes on her own. 

LAST STATEMENT: Lion is a unique film where it’s emotionally compelling first half helmed with a powerful performance by Sunny Pawar drastically deteriorates into a middle of the road indie drama in the second that doesn’t match up the level of beauty and amazement the first half built which makes it an uneven disappointment.

REVIEW: 2.5/5 | 56%

Super Scene:  The real footage of Saroo’s reunion with his family and his foster mother meeting his real mother is shown it's something that moves you tears.