Lion

Dir: Garth Davis

2016

*****

Lion, the story of a little boy called Saroo who finds himself lost and away from home, is pretty much faultless in that when a factual story is so beautiful, it really can't be told badly. I'm sure there are many who could try, not sure why they would but Lion is a classic tale of a man finding his way home and it's pretty much irresistible. I'm sure Sue Brierley was over the moon when she heard Nicole Kidman was going to play her but to be fair, all the actors are made to look like the people they were portraying and once you see the flash-back collection of real-life photos at the end of the film, you'll really appreciate the attention to detail given in this production. The Lion of the title is a little boy called Saroo (played by the utterly adorable Sunny Pawar, who steals the first half of the film) who, eager to help his beloved older brother, travels with him from their tiny village to the city of Khandwa to assist him during a manual labour night-shift. As the night draws late, young Saroo falls asleep at the train station while his brother tells him to wait. After waking hours later, Saroo searches for his brother and looks inside an old train that has appeared on the platform. Suddenly, the train moves and Saroo's life is changed forever when he finds himself trapped for two days until he reaches Calcutta, nearly 1000 miles away from home. Without understanding Bengali, Saroo finds himself escaping all sorts of dangers until he is caught by an orphanage and shipped off to live with a couple in Tanzania. Without knowing the name of his village, how to get there or the full name of his mother, Saroo's family could never be traced. However, haunted by the memories and the loss of his family, Saroo finds himself agitated as he enters adulthood and begins a downward spiral until he releases he has to find his birth mother, to tell her he's okay. And so begins a wonderful journey. Little Sunny Pawar is brilliant and Dev Patel is fantastic as Saroo all grown up. The story has been adapted very well, especially considering how hard it would have been to express Saroo's secret mental anguish visually without overdoing it. I'm not sure why they left out Saroo's other brother but I don't think it takes anything away from the overall story. The film is beautifully shot and well-acted. It's really as simple as that, a good story told well, as all factual stories should be. I really hope Dev Patel now gets the recognition he deserves, I'm not sure why he was nominated for best supporting actor at the 89th Academy Awards and not just actor but at least he's up there and I'm sure it will be the first of many nominations. It is easy to say that a director has an easy job when faced with such beautiful scenery but Garth Davis's direction is very impressive, especially as this is his feature debut. It is clear to see that everyone involved felt a passion for the story, it pours out of the screen during ever scene and every performance. It's a story that deserved to be told properly and it was and then some.