Lion (2016)

How would you rate "Lion"?

Have you ever been in a situation where your hearts tells you to love something but your brain wont do it. I felt the love growing for Lion as I sat in the theater. I felt the sympathy in the woman next to me or in the couple holding hands in front. I felt the hearts breaking pretending to imagine what must have been like to be in the young protagonist shoes, and as if my position to the subject matter depended on my reaction towards the film, I felt guilt for no loving it, even though my heart wanted to.



On paper Garth Davis' first feature film seems like the perfect movie. It has great visuals, Oscar -worthy performances, a soundtrack that can make you weep on its own, a great non-fictional story of resilience, with a delicate socially relevant topic that will not only speak to everybody – since we’ve all been children; but will specially speak to mothers and parents. But when the credits come, if your experience is anything like mine, it will be clear to you that Lion will be forgotten. Its fingerprint on both cinema and society is not clear, loud or original enough to do justice to its topic and survive the fate that sooner than later it will fade away along with our memories of it.        

The Film tells the story of Saroo, a young boy who at the age of five got lost in India resulting in him being separated from his family. After much struggling, he ends up getting adopted by a middle/upper class Australian family. 20 years later he comes across the software Google Earth and with the help of it and his vague recollection of his city and the train station where he got lost he decides to look for his biological family. He then gets reunited with his biological mother 25 years later.         

While I was sitting in the cinema, looking at the beautifully crafted cinematography of Lion, I could not help feeling that I was watching two different movies. One that felt important, worth telling, dignified to the human experience and difficult to watch just like life itself. The other was a “feel good” movie that was hyperbolizing every frame until it eventually turned into a Disney melodrama movie about Google Earth, filled with clichés and stage moments. I believe that it is here where Lion suffers the most, its second part cannot live up to the majestic and powerful first half.            

Lion deals with the delicate topic of missing children, particularly in India. It is very important to create awareness about this; it still happens and their stories deserve to be told. Not only the stories of those who get adopted and get to grow up with loving and caring parents, but also those who will grow up alone and those who will never have the resources or health to be able to ever be reunited with their families. They need a voice too. The mothers who are looking for their children every single day, they need a voice too. That is the strength of Lion; it will make you think of them, at least for 120 minutes.         

The movie also deals with the topic of adoption in a very simplified way. It touches upon many interesting thoughts about this without developing any of them. It must be said that this section benefits from a terrific performance by Nicole Kidman as Sue, Saroon's adoptive mother. As an adoptive mother herself, she gives her all to this performance and it pays off. But no even Kidman can't compensate for the lack of depth and coherence in this second section.         

It can be hard not to fall in love with Lion. The story in itself is already incredible and inspiring. It will make you feel good, like there is hope in a world filled with cruelty. It will seduce you with clichés and unnecessary drama. But it won't absorb you and it will hardly make you think beyond the pity that you will feel; it will not stay with you and haunt you every time you see a child on the streets. You will not ask yourself “can this kid have a story like Saroo’s” when you see one walking alone at night. You will watch it as a mere spectator and afterwards you will move on.   

                        

So, if what you are looking for is an idealist magical movie that makes you feel good about yourself and the world, one that reminds you of the good people and of the struggles the lucky ones need to endure to make it in life, then this is a film that will resonate with you; it will not disappoint and you will probably love it. If you want a film that speaks to you in depth, with honesty and confidence, one that shows us the horrors of this world so that we can better appreciate the good. One that makes you think and makes you want to act and, even if it is not perfect, it feels that gave its story the relevance it needed, then Lion might leave you wanting more. 

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