REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com
Lion Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan It is the kind of astonishing story only true life can deliver: Saroo Brierley, lost at the age of five, found on the streets of Kolkata and adopted by an Australian family. Decades later, with only the vaguest memories of his village, he used Google Earth to find his way home. This is the kind of overwhelming story that cinema often does not distil well, but Lion becomes a dignified, highly moving crowdpleaser in the hands of Garth Davis. With knockout performances from Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and the young Sunny Pawar, Lion should straddle both commercial and awards play, welcome news for backer The Weinstein Company. Comparisons will be drawn to Slumdog Millionaire, but this is a far grittier pearl. Probing insistently at the tangled ideas of family and brotherhood, Lion proves to be a powerful and distressing reminder of how disposable a child’s life can be. Yet its most Dickensian scenes are played out calmly, meaning this is a film that engages consistently. It is only at the end that this 120-minute feature bows to inevitability and the score begins to overstate its case — but, by then, Lion has earned an indulgence. Although Dev Patel headlines, Sunny Pawar leads the way. Most of the film is set in a parched India, where train tracks frame the story. And if Lion isn’t in India, the country is in
6 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016
SPECIAL PRESENTATION Aus. 2016. 120mins Director Garth Davis Production company See-Saw Films International sales The Weinstein Company, international@ weinsteinco.com Producers Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Angie Fielder Screenplay Luke Davies, from Saroo Brierley’s A Long Way Home Cinematography Greig Fraser Production design Chris Kennedy Editor Alexandre de Franceschi Music Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka Main cast Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Pallavi Sharda
the heads of the leading characters. Starting out on a steam engine in the northern province of Khandwa in 1986, Davis gives us the brothers Gaddu (Abhishek Bharate) and Saroo (Pawar), who steal coal in exchange for milk to bring to their labourer mother (Priyanka Bose). One night Saroo begs to be brought along when Gaddu goes to find work, and the two become separated when Saroo falls asleep on a station platform. He is trapped in a locomotive travelling 1,600 miles to Kolkata and, in short order, his very existence — let alone survival — becomes tenuous. He speaks Hindi, not Bengali, making him even more isolated. He watches as street kids are rousted; he meets a woman who sets him up with a dangerous man; he ends up with the police but does not know his mother’s name or where his village is — he calls it “Ganestelay”, but that is an approximation. But Saroo is lucky. He is adopted by a loving couple from Tasmania, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman). They also take in a second child from India, who is far more troubled than Saroo. If India is dust and orange and vast spaces in which to frame a tiny child, Tasmania is wild and beautiful. The Australian sequences are more difficult to stage, with Davis forced to shut down one chapter and move into an entirely different arena with brand new players. He is helped by the quality of his cast. Patel more than holds the
centre as the adult Saroo, the lost boy who finds it impossible to become a man. Nicole Kidman is magnetic as his forceful adoptive mother Sue, and Rooney Mara helps as his girlfriend. Davis, making his much-anticipated debut here after the admired TV series Top Of The Lake, which he co-helmed with Jane Campion, never seems to struggle. When Saroo becomes haunted by Gaddu, it seems like a natural thing, mirrored by his struggles with his adoptive brother. The story dictates that Saroo should spend a lot of time on Google Earth, of course, but Davis does not allow the search to weigh down the film’s themes. By this time, anyway, much of the audience will be reaching for their handkerchiefs. A word for Lion’s technical team: Davis’s achievement in capturing Saroo’s trek across India is notable. While Greig Fraser’s beautiful camerawork is clearly a star, production design by Chris Kennedy is also spot-on, giving a redolent sense of space without resorting to the usual colour-splash sub-continent clichés. And the noise of India fades in and out as it might to a child; silence at crucial moments returns to a deafening clamour. If Saroo’s story seems out-of-this world, the team behind this film has risen to meet the challenge it sets. There may be a sense of inevitability about Saroo’s ultimate destination, but what counts here is the journey.
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