Lion Roars

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2017)

This is an incredible story, well told. I disagree completely with any reviewer who states the film is at all maudlin - that's unfair. The predicament of the main character, Saroo, is so immense, you really should consult a doctor if you lack empathy for him. It is true that, as depicted here, his life as a young adult lacks the immediacy of the near hour-long episode of the crisis that nearly engulfs him as a child. (And there is something funny that the actor who stars in The Exotic Marigold Hotel series is now studying hotel management in Melbourne.) There is an inevitability to the story that makes the second half seem a bit perfunctory - but given the harrowing nature of the first half, that comes as some relief. (I literally lost my breath and gasped out loud during one scene in which I feared for the safety of the young Saroo.) Whatever techniques the director Garth Davis employed to coax/capture the performance from Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo, there is no denying that it is the heart and soul of this film, which should be seen for that reason alone. Pawar is fully committed and engaged in these often distressing circumstances; that the power of his performance slightly fails to transfer to the older Saroo, played with reliability by Dev Patel, has more to do with the writing than any fault of Mr. Patel. The charismatic child becomes a cipher as a young man in the second half, which can't decide if it's solely concerned with Saroo's plight, his methods or the crumbling away of Ms. Kidman's adopted family - or even Saroo's relationship with a young woman played by Rooney Mara. But the film finds its footing once again when Saroo inevitably discovers the location of his true home and the film reveals what he finds there. What is of most importance is that you will be astounded by Saroo's real life odyssey. I was profoundly moved by the notion that in life we all get a little lost sometimes and Saroo's story tells us that if we dig deep enough and are compelled to do so, the possibility exists that we can all go home again. Unlike so many other films, Garth Davis' Lion truly earns the tears and outpouring of emotion that it provokes from the audience - because it deals with the primal nature of our existence and our sense of identity in the world which is depicted as both big and, because of technology, much smaller than we think. Highly recommended.