JANUARY 9, 2017
I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in which the hero is a computer app.
That fact may be the most unique thing about “Lion,” the true story of Baroo Brierley (Sunny Pawar, whose appearance at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards was a delightful highlight), who, as a 5 year-old child, got on the wrong train in his hometown of Khandwa, India and traveled almost 1,000 miles to Calcutta where he was forced to live on the streets while trying to find a way to get back home.
Baroo’s plight comes to the attention of the authorities who arrange for him to be adopted by a family in Tasmania. The couple, John (David Wenham) and Sue (Nicole Kidman), immediately take Baroo to their hearts, but by the time 20 years have passed and Baroo (now Dev Patel) has become a man, there surfaces a yearning inside him to find his family in India, an impulse that worries his otherwise-supportive American girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara, totally wasted).
I have to admit that I was concerned going into “Lion.” Its producer and distributor is headed by noted Oscar strategist Harvey Weinstein, and I suspected that “Lion” was going to be the pony that he intends to ride to the Academy Awards once again. However, the first 45 smashing minutes of “Lion” displayed such integrity that I thought we had a real critical contender on our hands.
Most of the film’s first act falls on the shoulders of young Pawar whose buoyant personality bonds the audience to him almost immediately. So that when he faces fear and abandonment, his openness allows moviegoers to truly care for his fate in scenes that rival the effectiveness of similar scenes in “Slumdog Millionaire.” There’s a gritty style to the filmmaking by director Garth Davis that raises all kinds of hopes that we might have something special here. Unfortunately, that doesn’t prove to be the case.
Once the film jumps toward the adult Baroo, however, that’s when the Oscar bait begins dangling. Patel, who carries the last part of the film the way that Pawar held up the first act, is not to blame — it’s the plot (and dialogue) that really screws things up. Baroo gets into “I’ve got to leave to find my real mother” mode, but he doesn’t do the kind of legwork that would make for a satisfying dramatic effort. Instead, he sits at his laptop and after a few clicks, he sees his childhood home his home on Google Earth. No muss, no fuss. And no personal investment on our parts. Still through all this, Patel manages to deliver a solid performance and can walk away from “Lion” with his head held high.
Things are not quite so rosy for Nicole Kidman, who, though riding high for the moment on the awards nomination circuit, is saddled with “Lion’s” most baity (and obvious) scene. For most of the film, she is a warm, loving stepmother to Baroo, but when he begins to focus on his “real” mother in India, Sue is given a weepy monologue, performed by Kidman without make-up that feels much more like a clip intended for the Oscars than one that advances the development of the character.
Does “Lion” achieve its goal and wrench the tears that it aims to evoke? Yeah, pretty much. But its first 45 minutes promises so much more of an interesting movie that the second half ranks as a major missed opportunity for it to be something greater. Does it clear the bar as a tearjerker? I guess so. But how much of an achievement is it when the bar is dropped that low?
GRADE: B
