2017: The Year in Film: "Lion" Review

Since bursting onto the scene in Slumdog Millionaire, the darling of the 2009 Academy Awards, Dev Patel has 100% not had enough work. How much of this is due to a dearth of roles for actors of Indian descent (let's be real, probably almost all of it) and how much is due to his own choices is anyone's guess, but I was glad to see him have a lead role in an acclaimed film again.

Written and directed by a pair of relative unknowns (this is director Garth Davis' first feature film), Lion adapts the somehow actually true story of Saroo, a young child who after being separated from his family in India finds himself adopted by an Australian family and his subsequent journey to find his home as an adult.

The Good: full stop - I've never been in a movie theater before where every single person was crying. Every single person. Just wet cheeks. It's never happened. Is creating a powerful emotional response out of your entire audience a good thing? It seems like it. The narrative would be written off as too far fetched to possibly be true if it were a work of fiction - so the remarkable subject matter makes the filmmaker's jobs comparatively easy.  The film is structured in a way that helps it escape cliche and convention and really rise above what could have easily been a Lifetime movie. The cast is brilliant. Dev Patel rises to the challenge of the part, as much of his struggle is entirely inside his head, its up to him to express a lot of the film's emotional heft through his expressions alone. Sunny Pawar, the small boy who plays Saroo as a child, is a revelation. The film simply doesn't work without him, and he gives one of the best child performances that I've seen. Rooney Mara is strong as Saroo's love interest (even though I want to hate her because she's a billionaire's daughter she IS a talented actress), and Nicole Kidman is great as Saroo's adoptive mother. Faramir from Lord of the Rings plays his adoptive father, and it's great to see him again.  With a great cast and a powerful story all the filmmakers need to do is give them room to work and not screw it up, and gladly they deliver. It's easy, as a privileged American, to focus on our own struggles and issues and completely forget about the reality of life for the majority of humanity - Lion's themes - home, family, love, hope, are universal, and translate across culture, language and time as effortlessly as any myth or legend. Lion is a beautiful film.



The Bad: it's hard to criticize the plot because again, it's a true story, but it really does feel like a high budget Lifetime movie in parts. It avoids wholly falling into this trap, but there are moments of high melodrama that risk feeling exploitative - which is the worst thing that an emotionally powerful film can do.

Ultimately - this a powerful and deeply intimate film. The universality of its themes, its message, and its journey make this a deeply emotional film. Not unlike Slumdog Millionaire (is it bad to compare Indian-set films to Indian-set films? Maybe - but they both touch on impoverished children in desperate conditions so I think the comparison is apt) by showing us darkness, the light can shine through even brighter. While it risks Lifetime movie territory it never falls victims to the trappings of cliche. Sunny Panwar (he's so good!) and Dev Patel alone are worth the price of admission, and this ultimately uplifting film is one of the year's best.

8.5/10.