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Lion (2016)  

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Fairly terrific film. I think it does achieve more of its strength in the first hour than the second, particularly with Sunny Pawar's amazing performance as a young Saroo trying to find his family, eventually finding a home with new Australian parents. Davis' direction is concise and clear, never drifting far into "white-savior" territory (at least compared to something like, say, The Blind Side) while making all of the characters truly human and empathetic. (I think that Mara could have used a bit more development, on the other hand, she kind of disappears after the climax and her argument with Saroo feels a bit needlessly harsh - I do understand where she was coming from but something about it felt a bit off)

 

Simple yet truly inspiring and wonderful, I have few objections to this being one of the big OCs this year.

 

B+

 

 

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Really enjoyed it. It meanders in the second half a bit much, but Patel is charismatic enough to carry it, and the payoff is fantastic. The first half is freaking spectacular, honestly, and Davis is certainly a very promising talent to look for- I look forward to his Mary Mags movie very much next year. Gonna end up in my top ten of the year, which is a bit of a shock cuz I really wasn't too excited at all going into it. 

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This was very good. I can see why it's played well at the Globes and SAG, it's a big emotional ride (heard a fair share of sniffles in the theater).

 

It does lag a little here and there in the second half, but a very moving experience.

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With the exception of a few directing and editing choices, I loved the hell out of this movie.  For some reasson, more than almost any performance this year, I can't stop thinking about Patel's.  He just resonated with me in every way.  Very emotional and a terrific story and I loved Kidman's character.  

 

9/10

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I loved this. Sure, it's manipulative at times, but the story packs such an emotional wallop that it's hard not to get swept up in it. Sunny Pawar (can I adopt him please?) and Dev Patel are both excellent as the child/adult versions of Saroo, and Nicole Kidman is marvelous as a warm adoptive mother. Rooney Mara is kinda wasted here though; she's good in the role but her stuff could've been cut to no ill effect. That's really the only complaint I had with it though. This should connect strongly with anyone who gives it a chance. A-

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This is such a frustrating movie. The first half is great, focused and emotional. The second half is a freaking mess. I could tell this movie was adapted from a book because it's obvious large portions of the story are missing. Little to no time is spent on developing Saroo as an adult and because of it everything that comes afterwards doesn't have the impact it could have. The story is so rushed after the first hour that it could be compared to a rapid succession firework. One thing immediately happens after the other giving the material no time to breathe. Like Saroos relationship with Rooney Maras character felt like an afterthought which is a shame because they actually had really good chemistry together. It was honestly like reading a story and then skipping a few pages and then starting again. And then the film decides to pile on a ton of flashbacks and artsy shots to an already overcrowded plot causing the editing to be all over the place. It sucks because this could have been a great movie if they had just slowed down or made it longer.  - C

Edited by somebody85
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Lion is an intriguing feature that definitely is a tale of two halves. The first half of the film is excellent, framing poverty and the loss of a family from a child's perspective in a truly terrifying way. Pawar gives one of those used-to-be-rare-but-now-suddenly-quite-common great performances from a child actor, and anchors the film even in the second half when he rarely appears.

 

However, the second half is just... okay at best. It suddenly becomes extremely expressionistic despite not really having a good reason to be, and it quickly becomes evident there's not much story to be found here. Mara is completely wasted in a nothing role, and Patel tries his best to elevate some mediocre material. Kidman is consistently fantastic though, and deserves every bit of praise she's been getting.

 

It's only in its emotionally gut-punching final fifteen minutes does Lion return to the magic the first half makes, but it's a bit too late for that after a slog of an hour. Still, Lion is a strong directorial debut despite its inconsistent quality, thanks to a remarkable first half and grand performances. B-

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Eh but there's too many of them. It fucks with the pacing and don't really have much distinction between each other. I get what they're going for, but I stick by my assessment is that there was a ton of story for the first half, but then once Dev Patel shows up, the script suddenly has a ton of filler so that way it's not just Dev Patel for fifteen minutes.

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20 hours ago, Blankments said:

Eh but there's too many of them. It fucks with the pacing and don't really have much distinction between each other. I get what they're going for, but I stick by my assessment is that there was a ton of story for the first half, but then once Dev Patel shows up, the script suddenly has a ton of filler so that way it's not just Dev Patel for fifteen minutes.


I completely agree. It really starts to go off course right around the time when Rooney Mara steps onto the screen. There was just too much happening and there were so many of those shots or flashbacks between it all. I began to question if Saroo was schizophrenic since he began seeing things that were not there in completely different places. I got what they were going for (uncovering his memory) but it did not work for me. I really liked the first half of this movie but not the second.

Edited by somebody85
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Basically your typical blandly inspirational (with a touch of activist) doc that tries to function as a dramatic feature, and completely sucks at it. The only part I found in any way worthwhile was the 20-30 minutes near the beginning after Saroo gets lost - it still shamelessly milks drama and tears out of a little kid asking for his mommy every few minutes and clichéd shots of him dwarfed by his surroundings (get it?! He's all alone in the big and scary world!), but at the very least it presents a picture of a certain experience that has an idea and a focus behind it. What follows is lots of mechanical, utterly lazy "and then this happened" style storytelling and random asides centered on supporting characters that don't add anything meaningful to the main story. It never really explores either ideas or character, glossing over the most interesting things about Saroo's story (like his actual process of adapting to an entirely different world from the one he knew) and just spinning its wheels until the climax in which Dev Patel stares intensely at a laptop screen and the ending which literally has random extras applaud what happens before the final onscreen text asks the audience to visit a website. Fuck this pandering, hacky middlebrow puddle of a movie. 

Edited by Jake Gittes
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