Prepare yourself. I’m unsure if I’ve had a movie theater experience with a more constant stream of tears since 1997’s Titanic. I know there have been movies that have scenes that have affected me more, and there have been home viewings where I don’t feel the same pressure to hold it together as I would in the theater. So, while I was having sort of a sentimental day before I engaged with this movie, for whatever reason, I was wiping away tears early and often in this movie. In some ways, it was eerily reminiscent of 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. It starred Dev Patel (Chappie, HBO’s The Newsroom) and revolved around the story set, mostly in the present, with flashbacks to childhood memories in India. Much like the fantastic Slumdog Millionaire put Patel on the map for the first time, Lion will certainly launch him to leading man status for years. Though he didn’t appear on screen until the movie was about 40% over, he commanded every scene he was in from that point going forward to transform this movie from extraordinary to must-see. In a year where the top lead actors have portrayed characters riddled with guilt, doubt, regret, and self-loathing, Patel holds his own with the more accomplished Denzel Washington (Fences), Ryan Gosling (La La Land), and frontrunner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea).
Of course, Garth Davies, in his directorial debut, had something to say about that too. While not everything was flawless, it’s hard to think of many other debuts that did it better (Ben Affleck – Gone Baby Gone, Quentin Tarintino – Reservoir Dogs, George Romero – Night of the Living Dead are other contenders). The first 40+ minutes were taken in 1986 in India. Young Saroo (Sunny Pawar) is about five years old. He’s full of spunk and love. His mother, Kamla (Priyanka Bose), is a day laborer in the small village of Khandwa. Her means of employment consists of moving rocks all day long. In addition to Saroo, she has a teenage son named Gaddu (Abhishek Bharate) and a two-year-old daughter named Sheila.
Gaddu helps the family out as a laborer, too, and one night, he tells his family he will be gone for a week to lift bales of hay in a nearby village. Saroo begs Gaddu to take him with him, proving his strength by attempting to lift an adult bicycle over his head. After numerous pleas for his brother to take him to left bales, Gaddu finally relents. But by the time the duo gets to the work location, Saroo has passed out. Gaddu instantly regrets bringing his young brother to work a night shift. Gaddu, needing to work, leaves his Saroo on a train station bench to sleep and tells him to wait for him to return. Saroo wakes up the following day at an abandoned train station. He calls out for his brother, but he cannot find him. Still tired, Saroo finds a comfortable seat on an out-of-service train. When he awakes again, the train moves, but there are no passengers.
The train he is on has bars on the window. An announcement is made that the train is out of service, not carrying any passengers, and will not stop. The train wisps Saroo across India and finally stops at Calcutta, some 1000 miles away from his hometown. Saroo doesn’t know much when he meets city officials. He doesn’t speak the local language (Bengali as opposed to Hindi). He knows his mother only as “mum,” and while he thinks he knows the name of the village he lives in, he is either saying it incorrectly, or the village doesn’t exist on any maps because no one has heard of the word he is saying. An advertisement runs in the local newspapers, trying to locate anybody who might recognize him. However, there were no responses even though the advertisement reached over 15 million people.
It is decided that Saroo will never be reunited with his family. He is taught with other boys and girls his age basic English. English-speaking parents adopt Saroo. Sue and John (David Wenham –The Proposition, 300) are a loving married couple who welcome Saroo with open arms. They decide to extend their family two years later and adopt a second boy from India named Mantosh. Mantosh is very different from Saroo. He is very standoffish and is seen hitting himself repeatedly on multiple occasions. He will need more patience than Saroo. Saroo and Mantosh don’t have the best relationship in the world, which continues as the two become adults.
We are 45 minutes into the film before we flash to the present day of 2010. It’s 25 years since we’ve last seen Saroo, and he is doing well. He’s developed an Australian accent. He serves. And he’s set to take an upcoming course in hotel management. I don’t know if we ever learn about any other formal education (he is probably 33 or 34), but he is knowledgeable and driven. Mantosh still has many issues that plagued him in his youth. He fails to show up at a family dinner, and we learn that he constantly hurts their mother with his words and actions. The relationship between the two men is terse. Saroo visits Mantosh and tells him to avoid their mother because of the toil he takes on her. The hotel management course he takes is in Melbourne, and Saroo lives in an apartment.
A fellow student, he meets Lucy (Rooney Mara – Carol, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). The two instantly strike a friendship, which soon leads to something more. There are also some other students from India in his course. He sees and smells some red peppers, the first of many flashbacks to Gaddu. Saroo then tells his story to his new group of friends. They informed him about Google Earth and the speeds of different types of trains back in 1986 in hopes that it could help him locate his family.
Here is where the first real problem of the movie begins. It’s probably not that big in the grand scheme of things, but suddenly Saroo becomes obsessed with locating his parents. I understand that new technologies are in place and that tracking down long-lost family members is easier than ever. But it’s like he wasn’t interested in trying to find them (again, it might be because he thought that wasn’t a real possibility) to the point where it hampers his existing relationships and almost inhibits his ability to do anything else. Saroo becomes overwhelmed with sadness and regret. Here he is, having lived a lavish lifestyle with adoptive parents who have provided him with everything he has ever wanted and more, while his mother has probably been carrying rocks from one place to another during all of this time. The guilt consumes him, and Patel pulls it off beautifully and tragically.
It’s hard to explain why this film tugs at the heartstrings like it does. But Patel is the biggest reason why. There is an enormous amount of love between him and his adoptive parents…so much so that he feels he needs to hide from Sue and John that he is trying to find his birth mother. His new obsession takes a toll on his professional life and strains his relationship with Lucy. While we appreciate all that Saroo is trying to do and hope he is successful, we wonder if this will come with severe repercussions if he cannot find his mother, brother, and sister. And as much time and energy he puts towards locating his birth mother, he feels an equal amount of guilt towards Sue…almost like he thinks he’s unappreciative by doing this. At one point, there is a highly poignant conversation between Sue and Saroo about childbirth and adoption.
The true joy of this film is watching how the two halves come together to make this film whole. During the film’s early moments, Newcomers Pawar and Bharate establish a unique brotherly bond. It’s this relationship that is central to everything else that comes afterward. It helps create a sense of self in Saroo and gives his desire to find his birth family that much more purpose. And Patel delivers as a distraught man who suddenly sees the need for answers. The shots in both India and Australia were stunning. The repetitive use of a single piano accompanies us throughout the movie. The only issue I had with the movie was the sudden change from Saroo not looking for his parents to his need to find them yesterday. But that’s my only issue with this magnificent piece of brutal and beautiful art. You’ll shed tears of sadness, and you’ll shed tears of joy. And sometimes, you won’t even know if you are tearing up because you are sad, happy, or a mixture of both. This is filmmaking at its finest.
Plot 10/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10 (Patel in a career-defining performance…Kidman was perfect in a subdued performance as his adopted mother…Mara was wasted entirely…)
Screenplay 8.5/10 (not going to lie…I got a little lost in the flashbacks that occurred before when we met the young boys in India for the first time)
Directing 10/10 (the editing was good, but not perfect…much respect for Davies, though…this was a monumental directorial debut)
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10 (the piano accompaniment throughout the film was fantastic…guided the movie along at its most tender moments)
Hook and Reel 9/10 (It started slightly differently than I expected and took much longer than anticipated, but it was all needed—and once Patel hit the screen…).
Universal Relevance 9/10
92.5%
A
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