Lion: There Aren't Enough Adjectives to Describe This Remarkable Film

Movie Review: Lion (2016)
Version: Library borrow

Lion is a beautiful film, short changed during this year's Oscars. Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel were Oscar worthy in leading roles and the film was well worthy of Best Picture.

This is the true story about a young boy in India leaving home with his slightly older brother to find night work to support the family. He falls asleep on a train platform bench, so his brother leaves him there, promising to return. When the brother doesn't come back, young Saroo wanders around looking for older Guddu, and not finding him settles for another nap on an uninhabited train car. He wakes up in the morning in the car in motion, traveling for two days, his trip ending thousands of miles away from where his journey started. Lost and not speaking the language of his new surroundings, Saroo seeks help but can't get it. He faces multiple dangers from kidnappers and insincere strangers before ending up in a police-run orphanage, where he is finally given help, adopted by a couple in Australia, where he grows into adulthood. As an adult, Saroo finds it difficult to think of his brother and mother wondering what ever happened to him and struggles to discover his roots and the location of his original home, in the process alienating all the people in Australia who have become his friends and family.

There is much to love about this film adaptation of the book Little Boy Lost by Saroo Brierley. The story is heart wrenching, although the outcome is heart warming. The imagery of India and Australia is breathtaking, while the editing and pacing are measured. The acting performances by Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo and Dev Patel as the adult Saroo are wonderful, and Nicole Kidman as Saroo's Austrilian mother Sue Brierley is exceptional. Everything comes together perfectly in this film to tell this amazing story.

I have requested the book because I want to read the original story now, too. Saroo participated in the writing of the script, but I want to know this remarkable story in his own words. It's that good!

Every once in a while, there appears a movie spellbinding in its telling, in its showing, in its visual arts. And Lion is that film. Honestly, there aren't enough adjectives to describe this remarkable film. You should see it!