Lion
2016movie
24, 2016. The first part of “Lion,” Garth Davis’s unabashedly tear-jerking movie about a remarkable real-world incident, has some of the scary, wondrous feeling of a fairy tale. The audience is invited to imagine a long-ago time — 1986, to be precise — before social media or smartphones or Google.The transition from the young to the grown-up Saroo demands a shift in tone and genre that “Lion” doesn’t quite achieve. What felt in the first part like wonderful, Spielbergian simplicity feels, in the latter sections, like simplification.
Lion is one of the year's finest achievements and a top contender for Best Picture and Best Director. It's stunning that this is Davis' first feature film, even though we know he received widespread acclaim for his work on the television series Top of the Lake. There is much to admire in his approach and in his ability to draw out such compelling performances, trusting the truth of the human experiences to resonate and guide us through the story without need for unnecessary exposition or easy visual cues.
