A devastating true story

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2017)

I normally wouldn't dream of watching a film with Nicole Kidman in it, but having seen author Saroo Brierley interviewed on Australian television I was interested enough in his story to want to see this film.
As a 5 year old, Saroo became lost in India and wound up in an orphanage because he was simply too young to be able to provide details as to where he came from and who his family was. He was adopted by an Australian couple and raised with all the luxuries he would have missed out on in India. Yet he has a yearning to find his family, to let his mother know that he is OK. The film explores the unique story of how as a young adult he began searching for his family using google earth, looking for familiar landscapes in the satellite images in the region he believes he came from.
Both the young Saroo (played by Sunny Pawar) and the adult (Dev Patel) give beautiful performances in this film. Pawar takes us through the terror such a small child must endure to be lost in a megacity like Mumbai, and Patel is the rudderless young man with everything to be grateful for who is tormented by dreams of his family of origin. Kidman was surprisingly very good as Sue Brierley, and accompanied by master actor David Wenham as husband John they show us how the Brierly's desire as a childless couple to give love and affection to orphaned children from disadvantaged backgrounds is confounded by the traumatic backgrounds the boys they adopt cannot escape from. Both Patel and Kidman were nominated for Oscars for their performances.
Ultimately, Lion is a film that will be remembered by cinema-goers for the empathy it makes us feel; but in addition it is very well crafted, with some beautiful cinematography and great dialogue. This is the first film by Garth Davis, who previously directed the sensational miniseries Top of the Lake (2013). Lion has well and truly launched him into the US market, with his next film (Mary Magdalene) due out late in 2017 starring Rooney Mara, Joaquim Pheonix and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Lion clearly shows why Davis is now working on such a big project.