2017/03/12

27 days to go: Lion (March, 12)

Usually, I try to see every Oscar nominated for Best Picture before the awarding ceremony. This year, though, my stupidity prevented me to do so - I broke my leg exactly one week before the Oscars, before having seen Moonlight, Lion and Fences. The winner I've watched the next day, on the little screen of my old TV. Fences is still a no go, but not for a long time. Lion was today's movie. 

Sufice to say that I was crying almost the whole time. A kid lost from his family without the slight idea where his home is? It is a straight bullet to the heart. Sunny Pawar, as the little lost Saroo,  fills the screen, taking us with him in a very heartbreaking journey. His solitary journey in the scary big Calcuta is absolutely heartbreaking. In the right tone assumed by Garth Davis, with scenes built without exagerations, it was really sad. 

During the first half of this film, it reminded me the first 30 minutes of Wall-E - whitch, after, I've read on imdb.com trivia that was the inspiration for Davis.

I didn't know what to do with myself in many scenes. Told in a very eficient and beautiful way, it wasn't the easy sentimental story I thought at first. Even the usual scene at the end featuring the real characters of this story are not cliché. It is a very strong movie, with solid performances and much respect to what is being told. 80,000 kids are lost in India every year. Eighty thousand! Eleven millions are living on the streets... This movie is not just the story of an specific boy, but of thousands of families that struggle terribly to raise their children in a caotic scenery of extrem poverty. This is the dimension Lion takes, while still relating to that little boy who survived and grew up to tell his story to the world. 

Lion. Directed by Garth Davis. Cast: Sunny Pawar, Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman,
Rooney Mara. Writers: Luke Davies from the book 'A long way home" by Saroo
Brierley. Australia/USA/UK, 2016, Color, 118 min.


PS: Someone out there, please, I need an indication for a incredible book. I'm have too many hours free in the day, and not so interesting books in my hand (one day I'll tell you about the other dare I am tangled in). Really, it is a desperate cry for help (and good books :).

2 comments:

  1. See, that's great to hear, because I also had the wrong idea about this, I was afraid this could be a mushy, sentimental story, so I didn't give it a minute of my day. But I will watch it now, and I also think if I had known it was this good, I would've seen this instead of Manchester by the Sea. Didn't think that movie was Oscar material at all, it was just a regularly good drama. Looking forward to watching this.

    But I decided this month I'll stick to happy films, so I'll save this one for later. For now, I want to see stuff like Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald. After I read your post, I started looking for it but the torrent was taking forever to even get started. Until last night, when I was going through the files on my hard drive and noticed you gave me a copy of it! Yey! Thanks, I'll be watching it soon.

    [ j ]

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    1. I felt the same about Manchester in some moments, but in a whole I thought it was a very strong movie - what happens to the main character is just something that is really impossible to get over, despite all the love around.

      I'll think about happy cheery movies for you :)

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