Lion is a film divided into two parts. The first part of Lion establishes the life of a young Indian child, played by Sunny Pawar, before and after he gets separated from his family and adopted by an Australian couple. This part is almost entirely in subtitles. The second part of Lion focuses on the now adult Indian Australian man, played by the “was he always this hot” Dev Patel, who awakens from complete assimilation sparked by fragmented memories of his Indian childhood and becomes desperate to find his birth family again.
My mom adored Lion, did not want it to end, and wants a sequel. Basically she wants Lion: The Series based on Saroo Brierley’s life. In the interest of full disclosure, unfortunately I saw Lion after I was completely spoiled. If I can still enjoy a film after knowing everything that happens, it is a very good film. Lion is a solid film, but I do think that the viewing experience for me was dimmed by not seeing it on the big screen and by knowing all the plot twists. I chose to not pay to see Lion for one reason: Nicole Kidman. Apparently her beliefs may reflect whoever her husband is, which is great for the self-proclaimed supporter of women’s rights who has a spare country that she can go to and can make her coins in any country in the world. You do you! Not so great for the rest of us Americans without dual citizenship and less flexible careers and beliefs. I shall not be spending my money on the 53% that benefit from the hard work of women who are actually supporting women’s rights with their vote, their actions and their words, not Potemkin village feminists, no matter how talented and beautiful those feminists may be. Let your president support you.
Lion’s strength is its diverse representations of the theme of being unmoored physically and psychologically. The first half is familiar and often described as Dickensian, but even Dickens shied away from depictions of sexual child abuse. Davies manages to avoid prurient and explicit allusions to sexual child abuse, but in Lion, he makes his message clear. Saroo is in all kinds of danger, and even though he was a poor boy, he was a loved poor boy. Davies shows that he is not only lost, but Saroo knows that he is in constant danger of winning a sadistic lottery. He learns quickly whose attention to avoid and whose attention to capture.
The second half is my favorite part of Lion. It is much harder to represent the psychological anguish of not knowing what happened to you and those you loved without inadvertently opening your adult character to viewer derision. Saroo may be a seemingly well-adjusted adult, but he is just better than Mantosh at hiding his trauma until he is not. When he lashes out at those he loves, denies his heritage, quits his job and just spends his time contemplating and surfing the web and the waters, Davies’ empathy is always with Saroo. Patel makes his character’s emotional journey as dynamic as Pawar’s physical journey. Even though I have seen Patel in films before, he has failed to impress me until now. I look forward to seeing his next project now that he has become an emotionally powerful actor.
Perhaps working with a great actor like Kidman helped Patel to step his game up. I am objectively happy that Kidman is back in majorly successful films. Lately her work has been relegated to the straight to DVD pile. Kidman’s performance in Lion is perfect. Both Kidman and Rosamund Pike have a rare ability to lock in and radiate love at another person, whom I am assuming they don’t actually love THAT much in real life. Immediately after meeting Pawar, Kidman’s focus feels real. It never feels like she is acting, and that means she is working incredibly hard.
Lion is a solid, beautiful and emotionally textured biographical film that is suitable for all audiences. While Lion may not be life-changingly brilliant, it is still a film that deserved the majesty of the big screen as opposed to a tropey, familiar TV movie, which is not surprising given that Davies’ TV work has always been cinematic.