harrowing first half

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2017)

It's 1986. Saroo and his brother Guddu steal coal from passing trains. Their mother is an illiterate laborer. The family scraps by in rural India. Guddu leaves Saroo sleeping at the train station for night work. Saroo wakes up and stumbles into an empty train. He find himself trapped as the train travels 1600 miles to Calcutta. He is alone in the city and unable to speak the local dialect. He escapes the scary streets and gets taken to a Dickensian orphanage. He is adopted by Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John Brierley (David Wenham) from Tasmania. Twenty years later, he moves to Melbourne to study hotel management and starts a relationship with Lucy (Rooney Mara). Friends suggest using Google Earth to pinpoint his lost home town.
The first half with young Saroo is a harrowing journey. The nightmarish streets are closer to the horror genre. It's a very compelling story. The kid is undeniable. Once he leaves for Australia, the story slows down. There are some compelling aspects but it falters when compared to the first half. That imbalance leaves the movie wanting. Maybe it's possible to add more flashbacks into the second half.