'Lion' A Review

Lion is a drama about a boy separated from his family in India, his journey cross country, his struggles on the street before he's eventually picked up and put into an orphanage. Saroo(Sunny Pawar) is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Time passes. As an adult Saroo(Dev Patel) has little regard for his origin but after eating an Indian pastry at a friend's dinner party memories begin flooding back. Sacrificing his relationship with girlfriend Lucy(Rooney Mara) and neglecting his adopted mother Sue(Nicole Kidman) he begins obsessively searching Google Earth for a sign of his home town.

Pawar and the other actors in the first act of the film, which takes place solely in India and in which there is little to no English, give some incredible evocative performances. India feels alive not in a romantic way, which we've seen before, but in a very real way. The landscape and the people draw you in with their reality and honesty. The first act of the film is utterly captivating. The second act, when Saroo grows up, feels somewhat confused and lethargic. Patel and Kidman are both great actors, they do well enough(Kidman has a great effecting monologue at one point) but the action and the motivation of the characters are both muddled. Mara especially is hung out to dry playing the kind of classic dimensionless girlfriend Hollywood has come to rely on so needlessly. The final act of the film is played well with substantial emotion but it feels, given the laborious second act, somewhat unearned.

An interesting if uneven dramatic adventure.

Rent It.