“Lion”: a highly emotional film about an incredible true story

SYNOPSIS

Lion is the feature film debut of Australian director Garth Davis and chronicles the true life story of Saroo Brierely, based on his 2013 memoir A Long Way Home.  In 1986, five year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) became trapped inside a railcar near his family home in a small western Indian village. Just like out of any mother’s nightmare, the tiny child ends up thousands of miles away in teeming Kolkata, utterly lost and alone on the streets.  Eventually placed in an orphanage and adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham), one would think that the incredible story ends there, but that’s only the half of it.  Cut to Australia, 20 years later: Google Earth was just invented and we meet a now grown-up Saroo played by Dev Patel.  Using some simple math for a search radius and his exceptional memory for local landmarks, Saroo sets out on an online search for his birth family.  Does he find the village? Is his family still there? You’ll have to go see the film.  Get ready for some of the most emotional 118 minutes of your movie-going life.

THE ACTING

Newcomer Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo gives a heart wrenching performance that is both devastating and charming.  He carries over half of the film almost completely on his own, a lot of the time without lines but just using his physicality, and it is completely captivating.  His performance feels natural in a way is reminiscent of Quvenzhané Wallis as the six year-old “Hushpuppy” in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).

Take for example the scene where a hungry Saroo sits outside a restaurant window and imitates the gestures of a man who is inside enjoying a bowl of soup.  Here,over the course of just a few seconds, with no cuts, Pawar is able to completely transform his facial expression from playful to hopeless.  All the light just goes right out of his eyes. Is this what the industry people mean when they say “great control?”  All I know is the kid’s a natural.  He is Saroo, completely.  

Also, can I just say this, this kid is the Cutest.  He’s got a teeny, tiny little-boy voice that matches his teeny, tiny little-boy body, and when he screams out his brother’s name at the top of his little lungs from the railcar, (“Guduuuuuu!”) or when he looks up at the Kolkata policeman who just asked him his mother’s name and answers “Mommy?”… well, you just melt inside.  Just like when he flashes his adorable grin on screen at the small moments of joy in what becomes a very difficult life.  For a film about a lost child, there are surprisingly many these sweet moments and they keep the audience completely hooked.  

Dev Patel is also fantastic in this film.  There’s been a lot of media hype on the Australian accent and the impressive new physique he developed for the role, but I don’t find either of those are particularly remarkable. I barely noticed the accent, (which I guess means he was doing it right, so, good for him) and as far as the muscles go, I just wondered… “why?”  No, I loved Dev Patel in this film purely for his emotional performance.  Finally, perhaps for the first time ever, Patel has a role where he can really show his depth as an actor.  Gone was the goofy Indian kid who brings the comic relief (think Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, even Slumdog Millionaire…) and in his place is a traumatized man trying to find answers.  Patel masterfully depicts the inner conflict of the character without veering into melodrama,. He’s been nominated for a best actor Oscar and deservedly so, but why the Academy put him in the “Supporting Role” category, I don’t quite understand.  His role is the main protagonist, and shouldn’t that qualify, whether or not the role is shared with another actor as the younger version?

I would be remiss in not mentioning Nicole Kidman, because, well, she’s Nicole Kidman.  Hers actually was a supporting role (and was also nominated for an Oscar in that category). There is one very emotional scene of an intense conversation between Kidman and Patel in which she shares with him her reason for adopting.  Both Garth Davis and Dev Patel said in separate interviews that while shooting that scene they kind of transcended the camera, becoming totally swept into the moment by Kidman’s performance.  I had exactly the same experience as an audience member. So Kidman was good, but all in all, I think that the greatest asset that she brought to Lion  was just her celebrity.  I can actually picture other actresses playing the part of Sue Brierley without really changing the essence of the movie, whereas no one other than Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel could ever be young and adult Saroo in my mind.  But because Kidman is a superstar, a lot more people came to see this film, which is a very good thing.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

THE EMOTION

My first viewing of Lion brought on what I think I may have been the strongest emotional reaction that I’ve ever had from a film.  I held back my tears as long as I could until one moment about halfway through that just finally broke me (won’t spoil it) and from then on it was over! I was a blubbering mess until about an hour after the movie had ended. And I wasn’t alone- there were sniffles coming from all over that theater, even Ohmarx sitting next to me.

This film was an emotional rollercoaster and the feelings that it brings up are at times conflicting and confusing.  First, obviously, young Saroo’s experience of becoming lost is absolutely tragic.  It is SO sad to watch this poor child all alone and missing his mother, not to mention all of the really horrible events that happen to him in Kokata. And then the roller coaster swings us up and it’s all happiness and sweetness whe
n Saroo meets his adoptive parents in Australia.  How could it not be?  Suddenly this former street child is living a life of luxury and has these two, wonderful people loving and caring for him.  Yet we the audience cannot completely give ourselves over to the good feelings this brings, because we know his birth mother is still out there, not knowing what happened to her son.  We think of the guilt that the older brother must be feeling for having allowed Saroo to wander off on his watch.  And there’s something vaguely uncomfortable about the rich, white family taking the little brown boy from the poor family away from his home country… even though he was already separated from them.

The other happy-sad element stems from the honest portrayal of adoption in the film.  First we see what looks like a perfect family getting a perfect child in Saroo.  Who wouldn’t want to adopt after seeing that sweet smile at the airport, that adorable “pepper!” outburst at the dinner table (Saroo’s first English word), that tender bathtub scene?  I know I was ready! Sign me up!  Then: Mantosh arrives, he’s got the wild look in his eyes, he’s got the scars on his head from some prior awful abuse, and you know immediately that the poor boy is seriously disturbed. The Brierleys are about to experience the darker side of adoption.  The audience experiences such an extreme flip-flop of up and down emotions watching all of this unfold on screen.

Garth Davis did a masterful job telling this story. He even somehow manages to make the shots of Dev Patel clicking through slow-loading early Google Earth pages emotionally gripping.  (“I feel the magic!” I heard a guy a few seats down the aisle whisper when Patel suddenly stops and stares at something on the screen.  So did I!)  But beyond the acting and directing, the beautiful piano score and all of the other movie magic, I think what makes this film so compelling is the simple fact that this incredible story is all true.  It’s a testament to the human spirit and the power of familial love.  

Flicknotes bottom-line: Lion is a beautiful, emotional film. Go see it and bring your tissues.

CRITICISMS: I always have some. In this case, they are very, very few, and not very important.

1. The cliche college class scene with the students sitting around in a circle having a discussion.  Dev Patel’s twirling a pencil and speaks with his head cocked to one side about about how he wants to make a difference.  He even fistbumps another guy at one point. Pass me a vomit bag.  
2. The girlfriend character played by Mara Rooney.  We just didn’t need her.  Yes, by failing in his relationship with her we see how broken Saroo is, but I think we get that already without her.  He cuts himself off from his family and barricades himself inside his apartment to stare at maps night and day, after all.  But somebody somewhere once decided that every Hollywood movie needs a romance in it to be good.  Rooney was even the bottom half of this movie poster… that should have been Sunny Pawar instead!
3. I found one part when adult Saroo was searching through the Google Earth images of water towers confusing.  I thought he had found home when he actually hadn’t yet.  Did that trip up anybody else?
4. The title. I just didn’t find it as connected to the movie as it could have been.  There’s the big reveal at the end about Saroo’s real name, but it seems to come so out of the blue. I think that the film could have been better if “Lion” had been incorporated as a theme a bit more.  Like what if Guduu said to Saroo when he left him there on the park bench that night “be brave like a Lion,” and thereafter in the scary moments, Saroo reminded himself to do that?  (Bet you wish you had asked me for my ideas before, Garth Davis! Too late now!)

OTHER FLICKNOTES

1. I thought that young Saroo and adult Saroo looked nothing alike but young Mantosh and adult Mantosh are IDENTICAL.  How did they find such doppelgangers with the talent and range needed for this role?
2. The orphanage was a paradoxical place.  “This is a bad place” Amita proclaims to Saroo when he gets there. (Thanks a lot, Amita- way to make the new kid feel comfortable).  But was it all bad? The kid is off the streets, he’s getting fed, he’s got clean(ish) clothes, an actual bed, and he’s going to school, which he didn’t even do when he was still in Ganesh Talai. (His mother couldn’t afford it.)  And there is kind Mrs. Sood who seems genuinely concerned about Saroo and who found him the adoptive parents. BUT on the other hand, the kids were literally caged inside that place like animals.  There are the scary men with those wooden sticks that they were always banging.  They failed to find Saroo’s natural family.  AND WHERE WERE THEY TAKING SHONDEEP?  
3. Using the orphanage descriptors above as case in point, I really liked the film’s honest, multidimensional portrayal of the issues and the characters. Nothing in life is black and white and this film was true to that.  Except maybe Rama. He was pure evil.
4. How could so many people just walk by the children sleeping on the street and do nothing?  If I were one of them, born and raised in Kolkata, let’s say from a poor family myself, trying to make ends meet, and I were going about my everyday business and saw them… would I stop?
5. I hope this film inspires more people to adopt.
6. Check out the Lion IMDB page for more info about the movie, including awards and trivia.  (It’s got 7 2017 Oscars nominations!)