'Blu-ray or
Bust'
LION (2016, PG-13, 118 minutes,
SCREEN AUSTRALIA/LIONSGATE)
There is a grimness to
this tale of hope which, at times, nearly overwhelms you with emotion. Almost as if it is dictating to you with a
strong, closed, bony fist, demanding that you feel a certain way.
You know—kinda like a
mom.
LION tells the story of
Saroo, a young boy from a teeny tiny little town in India that gets separated
from his family. The first hour of the
film is this young boy’s journey from homelessness in the streets of Calcutta
to a loving family in Australia. Based
on a true story, the second half of this tale deals with adult Saroo, pining
for his home. Young Saroo, played by the
charismatically wonderful Sunny Panwar, is put through the wringer. Life is not all that kind to the impoverished
child, yet he manages to persevere, and usually with a smile on his face.
If mini-Saroo is
portrayed with more care and slam-dunk acting skills by a first-time actor who
cannot be more than eight years old, you would assume that big-Saroo would be
just as good, right? RIGHT?!? Don’t get me wrong, Dev Patel (SLUMDOG
MILLIONAIRE, CHAPPIE) is a fine actor.
And he does get to smile a few times.
But if the first half of the movie is about hope and survival (based on
the performance of a kid named “Sunny”), the second half is a brooding, angry,
angsty teenager. I understand that there
is a piece of the older character missing because he has no idea what happened
to his real family, but seriously—he breaks up with ROONEY MARA because of
it! Who the hell breaks up with The Girl
with the Freaking Dragon Tattoo?!?
First-time film
director Garth Davis does a splendid job creating a story with characters you
care about (even if Angry Saroo can be an asshat). The other star of this film (no, not the splendid
Nicole Kidman) is cinematographer Greig Fraser (ROGUE ONE, ZERO DARK
THIRTY). He manages to capture the
landscapes of Australia and India in such a way that you see through the boy’s
eyes, traveling from his home country to an entirely different and alien
world. Whether he is showing you the
grand scope of both countrysides, or focusing on something as tiny as a bench
at a train station, the visual aspect of this story would not have been as
effective with someone else at the helm.
The special features on
this disc aren’t all that special. I
seriously expect more if I am purchasing a film—more than three deleted scenes,
some pictures, and a music video by Sia (which seems really out of place
here). But you still need to see this
one on Blu-ray, at least to truly appreciate what Fraser does with his
cinematographic eyeballs.
Despite my grumblings
about the second half, this is a truly effective film. The dramatic switch in storytelling from the
eyes of a child to that of an adult is always a bit of shocker to me when it is
accomplished as effectively as it is here.
That is a sign of a good filmmaker.
And an irritating teenage-like persona.
And I ain’t talkin’ about me…
Grade: B+
Special Features: F
Blu-ray Necessary: Most
Definitely
-- T.S. Kummelman
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