Grade: B
In 1986, a 5 year old Indian boy named Saroo, while on a trip with his brother, got separated from him and found himself lost on the streets of Calcutta, many miles from home. Being too young to identify where he lives or any helpful information to the authorities, he lived as a street child until he was finally adopted by a nice Australian couple. Director Garth Davis has taken this memorable story and made it into a movie called Lion – now nominated for a few Oscars, including Best Picture. More than half the film takes place a good two decades later, as we follow the journey of adult Saroo (Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel, as handsome and affecting as ever), who seems to have adjusted nicely to his new life. He has a girlfriend (Rooney Mara – Cate Blanchett’s love interest in Carol), and overall has a strong relationship with his adoptive parents (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham), but the burning desire to find where he came from and go back to see his birth family consumes him. Lion’s score is probably the best I’ve heard in the last year. Gorgeous piano music that fits everything like a glove. If sheet music for it is out there somewhere, I want it. A critic took to task Nicole Kidman’s tacky and unflattering hair styles, and they did catch my eye (and not in a favorable way), but as we find out, it is true to what she looks like. This was one of the best uses of post-film captions and pictures/footage that I have seen in a while. So much of Lion is sad, bleak, and kind of a downer, but it ends on a beautiful and optimistic note, while an upbeat song plays during the end credits and the captions effectively explain the movie’s title. The authentic video footage of the “real life” people is used to provide us with a key plot point, and it puts a perfect button on things. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it, nor would I give you false hope on this strange and mournful day.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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