The Lion Weeps Tonight

As I watched what I believed to be just the beginning of Lion I began to get aggravated as it seemed to go on and on.  Finally I realized that I was not watching just the start of the film, I was watching Act 1 and perhaps part of Act 2.  It was then I was able to take in the Slumdog Millionnaire atmosphere and theme.  I will need to see the film again so that I can get the real flavor of the cinematography and editing.  Like Slumdog, the lead actor in Act 1 is a young child found on the streets with no acting experience.  Once I gave him the chance to reach me, Sunny Pawar, was excellent.  The situations he found himself in and his survival stretched the imagination slightly but  never got incredulous.  The camerawork, color usage and lighting in Act 1 are superb.  The hand held seemed to be used appropriately and never got too shaky.

Acts 2 and 3 for me were a little weak.  While silence can be a very effective mode of communication in a film, such was not the case here.  First it was not silence just no dialogue.  There was an intense musical background that took aweay from the strong emotional toll that Saroo (Dev Patel) was undergoing.  To his credit, Patel has grown as an actor and he had me seeing a charcter not Devb Patel.  Why Rooney Mara wasted herself in her role as Soroo’s girlfriend is intriguing.  She has too much talent for this.  Nicole Kidman was very credible and whoever played the adoptive father was not too much of a distraction.

The underlying story may indeed be true, but the adaptation left me unfulfilled.  It was a nice weepy ending but the ‘vibes’ were not strong