2016 | Dir. Garth Davis | 118 Minutes
"Do you have any idea what it's like knowing my real brother and mother spend every day of their lives looking for me?"
In 1986, a young boy named Saroo from a remote village in India is separated from his family after falling asleep on a train to Kolkata. After surviving on the streets alone, Saroo finds himself in an orphanage and a benevolent Australian couple adopts him. Twenty years later, Saroo's friends encourage him to search for his native village and birth family using Google Earth. His search puts strain on his interpersonal relationships as feelings of guilt for living an entitled life in relative comfort consume him.
Based on Saroo Brierley's non-fiction memoir A Long Way Home, the first half of Lion, director Garth Davis' feature debut, is a harrowing cinematic journey as poor lost Saroo dodges adults with sinister intentions at seemingly every turn. While still engaging, the second half of the picture isn't nearly as viscerally captivating, much of it focused on Saroo's internal struggle as he searches for a vital missing piece of his personal identity. Instead of focusing on Saroo's research process, the narrative is exclusively centered on the drama between Saroo and his loved ones in Australia as the frustration from his seemingly hopeless quest causes him to alienate them. Though presented in the most saccharine possible, the film's ending in which Saroo is reunited with his Indian family is well-earned after the filmmakers put the audience through the emotional wringer.
As Saroo Brierley, Dev Patel spends most of his screen time during the second half of the film shifting between in anguish and frustration. Though he makes it easy for the audience to empathize with Saroo, it is also difficult to watch and, at times, exhausting. Nicole Kidman and David Wenham play Sue and John Brierley, Saroo's adoptive parents. Kidman does most of the dramatic heavy lifting as a virtually infallible maternal figure. As girlfriend Lucy, Rooney Mara's role mostly serves to pile on extra emotional stakes for Saroo's search and never really becomes a fully realized character. Divian Ladwa plays Saroo's psychologically damaged adoptive brother Mantosh, a dramatic foil to Saroo that is mostly underutilized in the film.
The true star of the picture is 8-year-old Sunny Pawar. Pawar is extraordinary playing young Saroo, demonstrating incredible range for an actor his age, perfectly establishing the formative tragic events that occurred early in Saroo's life. His accidental journey from Khandwa to Kolkata and the series of hardships he suffered there are the strongest sequences of the film thanks in no small part to his performance.
Lion is truly a great film but unfortunately, the sense of immediate urgency captured so perfectly during the first hour of its narrative seemingly slips away in its second half. Based on true events, Saroo Brierley's story is moving and undeniably epic. The picture explores the basic human need to know and understand ones origins, occasionally calling into question but ultimately broadening the definition of family.
FRAGMENTS
- The film ends with a note encouraging viewers to visit the picture's official website (now defunct) for information on how to help protect street children around the world
- Nicole Kidman was handpicked by the real-life Sue Brierley to play her in the film
- Nicole Kidman and David Wenham previously appeared together in Baz Luhrmann's Australia
- Director Garth Davis was a camera operator for the 60 Minutes television special on Saroo's story
