Movies: Lion

[UsernameWasTaken]

It's a true story about Saroo Brierly, a 5 year old Indian boy who falls asleep on a train, ends up in Calcutta, eventually gets adopted by an Australian couple and 25 years later starts to search for his birth mother in India using google earth.

Really great movie; would recommend. Won't give too much away but would say it falls into the category of 'feel good'.

The story itself is really amazing - if you don't have any interest in seeing the movie or are interested in seeing it and are fine knowing the entire story in advance, Vanity Fair wrote a detailed account a few years ago: A Home at the End of Google Earth


Saroo also wrote an autobiographical book, A Long Way Home, that I haven't read but think I will.

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[kihei]

This is what good Oscar bait looks like. Yes, it's agenda is to tug at your heart strings, but it has some integrity concerning how it goes about doing so. Dev Patel, not among my favourite actors, is solid as can be. I enjoyed it.

 

[BonMorrison]

Solid enough film. The first half is signifcantly better and the young child that plays Saroo is fantastic. Patel is also great in the second half. It's definitely Oscar bait but it isn't super obnoxious about it so whatever.

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

This is what good Oscar bait looks like. Yes, it's agenda is to tug at your heart strings[, but it has some integrity concerning how it goes about doing so. Dev Patel, not among my favourite actors, is solid as can be. I enjoyed it.

Agreed. I haven't read the autobiography, but from the VF article I read (as well as other articles) the plot is very close to the 'true story' - so while the movie is intended to be (and is successfully) a tear jerker, that's largely because of the source material itself, rather than the film makers just being manipulative.

I looked up some of the differences between the film and the 'real life' story and those differences seemed curbed to create an 'easier' movie plot rather than create a whole bunch of dramatic tension. For example [spoil]the girlfriend in the movie wasn't a single individual IRL but an aggregate of multiple girlfriends. IRL he was working for his parents' business rather than the hospitality job he quit.[/spoil] One thing I wondered was [spoil]how true to life the problems the other adopted brother experienced were. [/spoil]

Solid enough film. The first half is signifcantly better and the young child that plays Saroo is fantastic. Patel is also great in the second half. It's definitely Oscar bait but it isn't super obnoxious about it so whatever.

The first half was extremely effective - very well done and impressive they portrayed that part so well with very little dialogue involved. I liked the second half a lot, too - i found various individual moments very poignant -and although Kidman often bugs me I thought she was extremely well cast for her part - in fact I would have liked to see more of her, even though I realize her character wasn't 'the point'.

 

[nameless1]

I thought the first half is way too long, but it is absolutely necessary in order to set up the back story, and to get the audience to be invested in the story. In fact, I actually like the second half a lot more, even though that also stretches out the story more than necessary, but that is probably because of the ending, which makes up for everything.

Regardless, this is a very solid movie, and like the others have stated, this is what a good Oscar bait should look like.

Now we wait for the best part of the year, as the Weinsteins do what they do best, and campaign for more nominations and statues than the movie deserves.

 

[Jumptheshark]

It's a true story about Saroo Brierly, a 5 year old Indian boy who falls asleep on a train, ends up in Calcutta, eventually gets adopted by an Australian couple and 25 years later starts to search for his birth mother in India using google earth.

Really great movie; would recommend. Won't give too much away but would say it falls into the category of 'feel good'.

The story itself is really amazing - if you don't have any interest in seeing the movie or are interested in seeing it and are fine knowing the entire story in advance, Vanity Fair wrote a detailed account a few years ago: A Home at the End of Google Earth


Saroo also wrote an autobiographical book, A Long Way Home, that I haven't read but think I will.

can we have the video of it