Movie Review: 'Lion'

"Lion" is a new movie about an Indian man who was accidentally separated from his family when he was five years old, and his incredible journey to find them. It's based on a true story. Spectrum News film critic Neil Rosen filed the following review.

"Lion" tells the true story of one person's remarkable journey from India to Australia.

The movie is divided into two distinct parts. The first half deals with Saroo, a 5-year-old Indian boy who gets separated from his older brother at a train station. Wandering alone, onto an empty, out of service train car, he gets locked inside, and days later winds up a thousand miles away in Calcutta.

He does not know the proper name of the town where he's from and he doesn't even know his last name. Homeless, he wanders the streets for two months, and winds up in a house of horrors orphanage.

Luckily, he gets adopted by a well to do, loving couple who live in Tasmania, Australia, played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham.

The second half of the film takes place twenty years later, where Saroo is now played Dev Patel. Despite having led a life of privilege for the past two decades, and having a caring and supportive girlfriend played by Rooney Mara, Saroo is still haunted by his past and longs for the mother and brother he lost many years ago.

With the help of Google Earth, along with his fragmented memories, he sets out with the overwhelming task of trying to try find out where he originally came from.

Director Garth Davis has taken this incredible, real life tale and made an emotionally involving film that pulls on your heartstrings every step of the way. Sunny Pawar gives a tremendous and convincing performance as the young Saroo, as we bear witness to the harrowing circumstances he has to endure. Dev Patel is also quite good. We feel his pain as we follow his odyssey and it's an entire journey you won't soon forget.