Lion

Filipe Manuel Neto

8/10

1/7/2023

**A film of great quality, although marked by the duality of the script and by an excessive emotional appeal.** This film, for me, has one big point for it and one big point against it. The point in its favor is that it is consistently based on a true story, and as far as I can tell it has been relatively faithful to events. The downside is the fact that it is one of those films that constantly appeals to the public's emotions in order to have some ability to capture our attention. It's not particularly pleasant having to watch a movie that almost forces you to have a box of Kleenex next to you from start to finish. The script tells the story of an Indian child, very poor, who likes to play with his brother by the train tracks. It so happens that, one day, things go really wrong and Saroo – that's the child's name – ends up trapped in a train that starts moving, taking him to new places, and separating him from his brother and family. Lost, not knowing how to get back in touch, he ends up in an orphanage. There, he will be adopted by an Australian couple, and raised with all the sweetness. But he never forgets his mother and, as an adult, he decides to return to India to find her. After the success of “Slumdog Millionaire”, it seems that Western cinema is permeable and open to what is best done in Bollywood. This film is not Indian, but it has actors of Indian origin and was well received, with good reviews and a good box office. The film “cleaned up” the Australian film awards and won some BAFTA awards, but lost the Oscars for which it had been nominated and was categorically ignored by the Golden Globes. By the way, while we're at it, it's quite difficult to understand how Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman – the film's protagonists and its main actors – ended up being nominated for Oscars in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories! The only reason I see for this “disqualification” is a possible attempt not to put them on the path of “favorites” to the two figurines, namely Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Casey Affleck. In any case, the film was one of the “losers” of that year's Oscars. The film is solidly starred by Dev Patel, an actor who thus consolidates his status as an international star and who guarantees him a place, if he wants, in American cinema. He only appears near the middle of the film because the story begins in the character's childhood, yet he didn't hesitate and confidently embraced his character with charisma and talent. For her part, Nicole Kidman also does not miss the opportunity to do another job very well done. Less interesting, David Wenham and Rooney Mara did what they could with two rather underdeveloped characters. One of the film's problems is its duality: developed in two halves (the first focused on the main character's childhood, and the second on her search for her mother, already in adult life), they are quite different from each other. I'm not going to say which one is the best, I think that's something relative and that says more about the viewer than the work, but I can say that I liked the second one better, even if it seems less coherent than the first one, more solid, but also more melodramatic. In this regard, it is necessary to praise the work of the young Sunny Pawar who, with an interpretation of demanding characteristics in which he shone, sustains a part of the film that, without him, would be much less interesting. Technically, what I most appreciated and feel commended for is the quality of the cinematography, which is clean, sharp, excellently framed and in magnificent colors. The sets and costumes are also very good, and the careful choice of filming locations allows for the inclusion of a beautiful set of landscapes. On this subject, it is worth watching the beginning of this film with attention. The soundtrack and the visual and sound effects complete all this with subtle touches, of great quality.

CinemaSerf

7/10

3/16/2025

Though it’s Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman who take top billing, it’s the hugely engaging Sunny Pawar who steals his scenes here as the young Saroo. He’s growing up in rural India with his elder brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) living fairly hand to mouth with their mother (Khushi Solanki) and so the two set off into the city to try to make some cash. Once they arrive, though, the young Saroo is too tired to accompany his brother on his search for work, so he has a nap! Next thing, he’s on a locked train heading through the countryside and when he does eventually manage to get off, nobody understands him nor has heard of his hometown. That’s just the start of some adventures that illustrate how dangerous this society can be as he encounters some fairly malevolent souls on his travels. None of this is especially graphically portrayed, but you don’t need a very vivid imagination to appreciate just what some had in mind for this five year old boy. Fortune smiles on him, though, and to Australia he goes where he is adopted by Sue (Kidman) and husband John (David Wenham) and now morphs into Dev Patel. He’s happy enough there, moves to Melbourne and meets Lucy (Rooney Mara) but he’s becoming more and more restless. Despite his comfortable life and his love for his adopted parents, he still pines for his family in India - so sets about trying to put together what he knows, remembers and can glean from Google maps. Can he ever find home? Patel is also a natural here and he manages to convey well the struggle between his innate need to find out what happened at home with his obligations to his parents, a challenge made especially difficult as Sue is having issues of her own which are explained here without sinking into melodrama. The latter stages are also effectively intercut with flashbacks that seem to be fuelling his desires to return but also offer us an opportunity to appreciate just how loving this family was, despite them having to pinch coal from the train to trade for milk. Kidman only really appears sparingly but she offers an impassioned and often quite poignant performance - but neither she nor Patel really hit the potency of the young Pawar who really does make this worth a watch.