Lion (2016)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  8 / 10

  Lion proves that through resilience and determination, the seemingly impossible can be achieved. What a story this is! Incredibly remarkable and astonishing. A young Indian boy becomes lost 1600km from his home village. Months later he is adopted by an Australian couple, where years later he yearns to rediscover the location of his real family. After the first ten minutes, I could smell the awards fragrance. A powerful stench it is, but it has every right to attract golden statuettes. A real tearjerker in every sense, I advise you bring tissues. There is so much raw emotion here, both on the surface and embedded within the narrative. An important story that needed to be told to highlight the poverty and missing children of India. Then, to introduce Saroo to the privileged world, meant he adopted an internal conflict. Stay with his Australian family who provided him with a chance at having a good life, or locate his real family who might still be searching for him. Both have consequences which are explored rather well. Fortunately the Australian couple are the nicest and most generous people in existence, which makes Saroo's choice that much easier. A beautiful tender story, with plenty of rich depth. Dev Patel shines amongst the heavyweights in what is his best role. He is able to portray that internal conflict enigmatically to create an emotionally involving performance. It never felt falsified. Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and, a personal favourite of mine, David Wenham were are all fantastic and really supported Patel. Sunny Pawar, who plays young Saroo, was a revelation. He captured innocence and fragility. Google Earth has never been so useful, although I do find how Saroo utilised it to be rather coincidental in the film. It's slightly too melodramatic and emotionally manipulative for my taste, but when the last ten minutes arrived...I felt goosebumps. I let myself in and was overwhelmed with happiness. The addition of the real footage at the end was the icing on the cake. A truly wondrous drama that portrays generosity, resilience and happiness.

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