Lion (2016)
(2016)The true story of a life lost and found.
Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and Dev Patel star in this true story drama (based on the memoir by India-born Australian Saroo Brierly). 25 years after being lost on the streets of Calcutta and subsequently adopted by a loving family in Hobart, young Saroo sets out to find his birth family. He embarks on this needle-in-a-haystack quest with only a small store of memories, and the help of Google Maps...
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Best Supporting Actor (Patel) and Adapted Screenplay, 2017 BAFTAs
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Directed by Garth Davis
Starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Pallavi Sharda, Benjamin Rigby
Written by Luke Davies (based on the memoir 'A Long Way Home' by Saroo Brierley)
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Lion (2016)
BY Alissa-Warren superstar
Okay it unashamedly going to have you balling your eyes out , if not you have a stone for a heart. Dev Patel is gorgeous and he shines so bright in this film. It feels long... you feel every... single... heart... wrenching second but wow the reward is, bam ! so worth the hard slog.
BY pkmana nobody
Another number one for the grown girls who love True Stories .. Sad but beautiful story line with excellent actors .. I really enjoyed ...
BY cinemusefilm superstar
This true story is told in two parts and filmed across two continents. Five year-old Saroo is a ragamuffin sidekick to his older... More brother Guddo, two poor boys who support their family by stealing coal and scavenging trains in their West Bengal village. They become separated one night and Saroo finds himself alone on a train heading to the other side of India. He he joins hordes of homeless children who must fend off predators while begging to survive. Eventually he is placed in a crowded orphanage, then adopted by two big-hearted and childless Tasmanians, Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John (David Wenham). Twenty years on, Saroo (Dev Patel) begins to have memory flashbacks of his native land. As they increase in intensity, he becomes obsessed with finding his family. With some luck and Google maps, the story comes full circle.
There is so much that makes this film stand out. The storytelling is more than engaging: it is so captivating that the two-hour run-time feels like an hour. Acting performances are outstanding: Nicole Kidman is at her best while the five year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) is the heart of the film and Dev Patel its soul. The cinematography is brilliant, especially the filming in India. The camerawork is both expansive and intimate, shifting often from sweeping aerial panoramas of mountainous Indian countryside and tranquil Tasmanian waterways to narrow winding alleys, village markets, and the inner-world of Saroo’s turmoil. Some of the most powerful scenes are shot from the eye-level of a terrified lost boy jostled by masses of humanity and the close-ups of Saroo’s painful face desperate to know home. The colour palette is exotic, sound track emotionally intense, and the directing finds a rhythm that is almost orchestral.
This film offers an immensely satisfying cinematic experience: visually stunning, narratively powerful, and an emotional whirlwind. It comes at the end of a very mixed year for Australian film, with some of the world’s finest produced but many that are less than inspiring. Lion is one of those films that will appeal to everyone and it has a very long after-taste. It easily tops my film year.Hide
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The Press Reviews
...grabs you by the throat from its first frames and never lets you go. Full Review
Blessed with a Ripley's Believe It or Not story line that would warm the heart of a stone. Full Review
It's refreshing to see the complications of a mixed racial identity brought to the screen. It might never roar but it's still a fierce contender. Full Review
As enthralling as it is emotional. Full Review
While unique, Saroo's story is somewhere between the-guy-who-found-a-lottery-scratcher-worth-fifty-bucks and the-farmer-who-prayed-for-rain-and-got-it. Full Review
Kudos to Kidman, whose unglam, unguarded take on the role is emotionally powerful and true; her scenes with Patel provide just the right blend of grit and grace. Lion is one from the heart. Full Review
We've watched this young man struggle and fight for answers, only to have them drop into his lap at precisely the right moment. It's a drastic misstep that ruins whatever chance Lion had of doing justice to a fascinating true story. Full Review
That Lion is an emotional, compelling watch is down to some terrific performances... Full Review
A remarkable story well told, and great advert for Google Earth. Full Review
BY Alex Casey Flicks Writer
The story of Lion sounds like unfathomably cliché weep-bait, and it absolutely would be if the events had not been 100% true. After a savage twist of fate, a little boy named Saroo finds himself stranded 1700km from his hometown in India. So begins a tremendous return journey that spans decades and oceans alike, as Saroo attempts in adulthood to trace the invisible threads that connect him to the nameless, shapeless place he once called home.... More
Dev Patel (as the adult Saroo) subtly grows his cultural disquiet like a noxious weed, living in Australia after being adopted by the big-hearted John (David Wenham) and Sue (Nicole Kidman). Kidman and Wenham are astounding as a tragedy-laced version of Kath and Kel, torn between wanting their son to feel complete and the fear of losing him entirely as he yearns for his real home and his real parents. This is a family film in the truest sense of the word, the universal themes of belonging and identity should ring true to anyone with a mum or a dad or a kid or a goddamn heart goddamnit.
Lion is a big story told in a considered whisper rather than an obvious, Oscar-belching boom. Although lagging in the second half as a way of stalling the tearful, dam-bursting finale, Lion looks at how cultural upheaval and trauma seeps into the mundane minutiae of everyday life, and the lengths people will travel to plug up the missing pieces in their identity puzzles. From the bustling train stations of Calcutta to the eerie quiet of a Hobart brick ‘n tile, Lion is an astounding, all-encompassing story of hope, determination and dumb luck that will leave you both crying like a baby and clapping like a seal once the credits roll.Hide
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