Miraculous, Disturbing,Rivetting, Incredible, Life Affirming, Beautiful

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2018)

Lion is certainly not the greatest film of all time, nevertheless, it is one of the few that engaged and amazed me, hence my ten stars. I have no illusions that the story was not simplified, homogenized and depicted to make its point, yet the kerygma of this stranger-than-fiction biography is indubitably true, and what a heart rending story it is! Along the way, the audience is given a slice of the hard life in low-caste and demimond India, and discover some idea of how many children there are abused and neglected. Out of this horror, just one little miracle, so unlikely, offers up the joy of hope and the promise in mere survival, if one persists in pursuit of truth. If any film earned the right to a happy ending, it is this one. If any single human ever deserved a good outcome, it is the protagonist in this film, not for his (their) good acting, but for the real life tragedy incredibly erased, out of a sudden flash of memory.
(How much we take for granted in the First World, complaining that the electorate and politicians don't do enough for citizens and resident aliens who suffer relative want or injustice. What a joke our real-enough problems are by comparison! The agony in the slums of India, or North Korean slave labor camps, or Syria, and many more such countries, makes a homeless person in America much closer to Jeff Bezos than he would be to those wallowing and dying in Third World squalor! While we freak out over the potential that mother earth is being hurt by too much anthropogenic emissions, there are real people, by the hundreds of millions, suffering torture, extermination, starvation and callous neglect in dozens of nations around the world.) This fine film, Lion, shows us how good we have it here, and how much help the truly desperate need. It touches on many other points, too. Some characters clearly are led to extremes for survival, but others are evil for mere easy advantage or gain, and also, the adoptive brother demonstrates the limits of kindness and love for the unfortunate few who suffer brain trauma or psychosis, as a caring Australian couple do their best to help two boys, but only one surmounts his stumbling blocks. To sum up, all I can say is "wow!"!!
I close on the music of Sia, "Never Give Up", played over the end credits. Talk about icing on the cake, this made me wonder how often we walk away with positive dharma in our heads when the music adds to your already high opinion. It is the ideal lyric and music for the film. I have no problem with marketing when it drives more people to such a film, to promote the hope inherent in life, striving, and following Sia's call to "Never Give Up."