The film throws light on the sensitive issues around adoption and the motivations of parents who adopt children from different countries and cultures to their own. Meanwhile, we're shown the quiet dedication that his adopted parents have provided and the deep bond he has formed with his adopted mother, even if Saroo cant bring himself to tell them of his investigations for fear of hurting them and seeming ungrateful. The more Saroo scours Google Earth for clues to the whereabouts of his village, the more vivid the memories become, and the more his love for his mother is reignited. Through tender memories, we see young Saroo working with his birth mother Kamla in the hills behind their village. That’s not the whole story, but sometimes, half of a story can be exactly what’s needed.For British actor Dev Patel, who plays adult Saroo, this is a film about love and the remarkable bond between mother and son transcending continents. But given the distressing contrast between the excellent first and distressing second half of “Lion,” maybe Davis should’ve ended his picture when little Saroo, having escaped a Dickensian catalogue of horrors, finds safe harbor and solace in Kidman’s arms. No filmmaker – no artist, for that matter – wants to be told what he or she should’ve done. By contrast, Pawar is so refreshing, so dedicated, so natural, you wish he’d grown up to be anyone except Patel. That is, he’s absolutely convinced he’s more appealing than he is. Perhaps that’s the heart of “Lion’s” problem: Patel comes off like an Indian Richard Gere (incidentally, they co-starred in the pathetic “Best Marigold Hotel” sequel). Newbie director Garth Davis certainly seems taken with Patel – though not half as much as Patel is taken with himself. Nicolle Kidman delivers a compelling performance as an adoptive mother, but even she can’t overcome the weight of the final half of ‘Lion.’ Credit: revistavanityfair.es However, “Lion” is about Saroo – unfortunately, the adult Saroo who, as played by Patel, is moody, conflicted and yet somehow “heroic.” Or so the movie insists. But it’s not her story – though, in many ways, it should be, especially after Saroo has grown up and she’s forced to deal with his unexpected rejection of everything she and her husband have given him. He’s “Slumdog Millionaire” meets “Oliver Twist,” and he’s irresistible. He’s charming, stubborn, resourceful and resolute. Pawar, a non-pro, is as affecting as any child actor in recent memory. The first half of “Lion” – the part about little Saroo – is spectacular. Or, more likely, Patel’s on-going search for a Hollywood career. The rest of the movie, which includes a big plug for Google Maps, concerns Saroo’s search for his roots. Who is he really? Where is his real family? Why should he stay with his adoptive parents, even though they’ve been unwaveringly wonderful to him? Jump ahead 20 or so years and Saroo (Dev Patel), though enrolled in school and in deep flirtation with a gorgeous classmate (Rooney Mara, given nothing to do), suddenly has questions.
They are dream parents, loving and supportive, even with a bad-seed second son they adopt after Saroo. He’s adopted by a couple (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) who bring him home to live with them in Tasmania. The usual kid-on-his-own perils ensue, everything from child snatchers who regularly comb the streets for lost little ones they can sell to nasty people for nasty purposes, to a falsely enticing woman – she’s like the witch in Hansel and Gretel – who, well, does pretty much the same thing.įormer Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is among those stumping for ‘Lion.’Įscaping her clutches, Saroo is put in an orphanage where they pretty much … all together now…do the same thing. Saroo finds himself alone in a huge, bustling city. He has no idea where he is worse, he speaks Hindi and in Calcutta, where he’s landed, everyone speaks Bengali. But when he wakes up, the train has traveled some thousand miles to the east. The two are somehow separated at a train station and Saroo boards an empty train to nap and await his brother’s return. However, things go awry almost immediately.
When Guddu sets off to find work outside their immediate slum, Saroo begs to go with him. It’s the mid-1980s and five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives in India with his impoverished mom and older brother, Guddu, both of whom he adores. UNICEF? That all but spells out you must be a bad person if you don’t love “Lion.”īased on a true story, “Lion” begins as the saga of a very little boy lost in a very big world. ‘Lion’ would be a better movie if director Garth Davis had stuck with newcomer Sunny Pawar and told the tale of a child who stumbled into a loving home.
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