Review: Lion

There is a moment late in Lion that finds Nicole Kidman's Sue Brierley, harrowed by her feelings of failure as a mother, recounting the moment she realised that her purpose in life was to devote herself to adoptive parenthood. Reminding audiences of her talent as one of the most emotionally transparent actresses working today, Kidman conveys the vision that "left her feeling like an electric shock had gone through her" with such conviction that one can practically see the moment being relived in her eyes.

It seems odd to lead with Kidman since Sue is a comparatively peripheral figure in this deeply moving account of a young man's odyssey to find his way back home. Yet Sue and Kidman are pivotal in bridging the 20-year-plus gap that connects the two halves of the film. The first section is anchored by impressive newcomer Sunny Pawar as Saroo, a five-year-old living in an impoverished hamlet in central India with young sister Shekila, older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), and their illiterate mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose), who moves rocks at construction sites to earn a little money.

Guddu does what he can to help, hopping on trains to gather coal and scavenging for bits and bobs with Saroo by his side. The bond between the brothers is keenly felt, and it's all too understandable why Saroo would plead to come with Guddu on a night expedition to search for change and other goods underneath train seats and why Guddu would allow his little brother to tag along. When an exhausted Saroo falls asleep and resists Guddu's pleas to wake up, Guddu leaves him on a train platform bench and instructs him to wait there until he returns. When Saroo wakes up some time later, it is the dead of night, the platform is empty, and Guddu is nowhere to be found. As if the situation isn't terrifying enough, Saroo suddenly finds himself trapped inside a moving train that takes him roughly 1600 kilometres to the intensely chaotic Howrah Station in Kolkata (the former Calcutta).

Disoriented, unable to speak the Bengali dialect, and shooed away by the bustling crowds, Saroo does what he can to survive. At times, he's helped by strangers - some kind (a street urchin, one amongst thousands, who offers him a piece of cardboard to sleep on), some not so kind (a seemingly kind woman whose boyfriend has lascivious intentions), and some well-meaning (a young man who brings him to the police, who enter him into an orphanage where he has the fortunate luck to be adopted by an Australian couple, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Kidman). Saroo, whose sensitivity to people and his surroundings has served him well thus far, instantly senses that John and Sue are genuinely good-hearted. He forges an immediate bond with Sue, whose love and adoration for him are cemented upon first sight.

Cut to two decades later. Saroo (Dev Patel) has grown up to be a confident young man, a source of pride and joy for his parents, whose other adopted son Mantosh (Divian Ladwa) has been more problematic yet no less loved. During a stint in Melbourne to study hotel management, Saroo begins a relationship with the infinitely understanding Lucy (Rooney Mara) who, after Saroo is overcome by memories of his past at the sight of a dish of jalebi (an Indian dessert from his childhood), urges him to trace his roots so that he can find his home and family.

As Saroo becomes more and more obsessed with researching his past (using the newly available Google Earth technology), he is ever more laden with guilt at the pain and suffering he must have caused Guddu and his mother, his privileged upbringing, and his conflicting loyalties. Patel does some of the finest work of his career as Saroo is haunted by images of Guddu and his mother. Saroo, instead of reaching out to the people who have always been there for him, shuts them out and Patel's nuanced performance ensures that Saroo's confrontation of his true identity is a riveting watch.

It's all but impossible to resist the visceral pull of the true story told in Lion. Director Garth Davis does a splendid job in exercising restraint over material that could have easily been melodramatic. Instead, his dedication to presenting Saroo's experiences without embroidery ensures that each tear - and there are multitudes to be shed - is well-earned. Not that Lion is without its faults, especially the underdevelopment of his relationship with Mantosh and the one-dimensionality of Lucy's character, but it rises above such flaws due to all of the actors' stellar work and the dramatically satisfying finale.

Lion

Directed by: Garth Davis

Written by: Luke Davies; based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley

Starring: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Priyanka Bose, Divian Ladwa