Movie of the Week: Lion

Alexa: I straight-up ugly cried as the credits started rolling, so “Lion” clearly resonated with me. Sometimes truth provides a more inspiring story than any fiction, and this movie is a prime example of that. I knew little of Saroo’s story going into it, and from the opening scenes I was firmly invested in his journey. I give major kudos to Sunny Pawar, the young actor who plays Saroo as a child, for carrying nearly half the film. So many stories based on true events hop back and forth between past and present as a framing device, so it was refreshing to see Lion actually take a more linear approach. But consequently, it’s up to Pawar to hook the audience and ensure they care about this remarkable young man, and he’s more than up to the challenge. Dev Patel seamlessly transitions into the role as Saroo enters adulthood and delivers an outstanding performance in his own right. “Lion” is harrowing and heartfelt without beating you over the head with its message of love and perseverance - its admiration for its subject and his incredible experience is earnest. It’s a testament to the quality of films released in 2016 that this one doesn’t even crack the top five in my ranking of the best picture nominees, but it’s a fascinating and emotional journey well worth taking.

Joel: I don’t think that anyone will argue that this is an amazing story. It an emotional tale that has a hero who overcomes seemingly impossible odds through perseverance and is able to do something that feels like it should have been impossible. I just don’t know if a dramatic movie is the best way to hear this story. At the heart of it, this is a story that is able to move forward because someone looks a google maps a lot. And that’s a very hard, possibly impossible thing to dramatize. It feels like a lot of the side storylines (Saroo and his girlfriend for instance) gets so much screen time to try and inject some scenes that don’t feature a computer into the movie. What feels like it should have been the prologue (when he’s a kid) ends up taking up close to half of the movie. The contrast is so great between the feel of the first and second half of this movie that it almost feels like this is two closely related short films rather than one full feature.

That being said, the first part of the movie is probably the stronger part. It takes it’s time and with minimal dialogue is able to paint a scene of a big uncaring world, and a hopeless situation. It’s shocking how good the child who plays young Saroo is, especially considering that this is his first film ever. But the first part of the movie is able to hit you emotionally in a way that the second part can’t really follow up on. Sure the ending is able to bring that emotion right back, but the bulk of the second half feels stilted and slow as we wait for the end of the movie to connect back with that earlier half.

Chris: I feel like we should’ve seen more of adult Saroo before he gets fully engulfed in his search of his village because otherwise, he mostly looks like a moody jerk that’s obsessed with angrily staring at a laptop. I wanted to see more of a transition of the type of guy Saroo was before the search began so we understand more of the emotional aspect of what he’s sacrificing to dedicate himself to the search. Without it, the emotional scenes between he and his girlfriend are a struggle because we’re being told it’s a struggle rather than showing us. All of that out of the way, I was still an emotional wreck when Saroo finally comes face-to-face with his mother. It was a testament to Dev Patel’s acting talent and my main complaint for the movie was that I needed to see more of that from Patel. However, it is a two hour movie and there’s not really anything I would have cut out, especially everything that involved young Saroo. Typically I dislike child actors but Sunny Pawar is the workhorse of the movie which is a massive task for such a young actor.

Jason: My father-in-law likes watching 60 Minutes. My wife and I like having dinner with her parents on occasion. On one such night recently, we happened to see an article about a young man who was born in India, raised in Australia, who found his old home via Google Earth. It was a fascinating story of loss, rebirth, and technology. They did, of course, mention that it had been turned into a feature film and that it had been making waves in the indie scene for a while. My initial reaction was “Huh. Sounds alright, I suppose.” I had no intentions of actually watching the movie until Alexa picked it for this month.

This was a solid film. Already knowing the story and having seen interviews with the actual Saroo, I felt like it was a bit too dramatic at points. Now hear me out. I understand that it’s a drama. I understand that it is based on real events. But the impression I got of the real Saroo did not really mesh with Dev Patel’s Hollywood style emotional range. I'm sure that the actual thing was extremely emotional when it happened. However, I felt like a lot of the conflict in the second half of the movie was over the top and exaggerated. The first half of the film was brilliant. The only part that got me misty was when the kids started singing in the “group home.” The minimalism of dialogue, the rawness of the events, the terror and loneliness and hopelessness conveyed by such a small person all struck a chord with me. Unfortunately, that chord did not continue to resonate during the second half.