Harvey Weinstein has his heart in the right place, I really think so. The guy wants to make prestige films, so badly, and like you Harvey, I like many stories Oscar movies have to tell. However, maybe modernize a bit instead of trivializing your film with outdated schmaltz? Lion, your newest, has a killer feel good story about a boy who survives harrowing odds after separating from his family and eventually reconnects with them. So why do you need to add emotional duress to this movie? Trust your story, dude.
As I said above, Lion is based on Saroo Brierley’s (Dev Patel as an adult) autobiography. Young Saroo (Sunny Pawar) had a rough go of it. After begging to go to night work with his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), Saroo gets separated from Guddu and ends up on a train across India. Saroo by extremely good fortune survives living a few months in Calcutta despite not speaking the language and having no means of living on his own. He ends up being adopted by John (David Wenham) and Sue (Nicole Kidman) Brierley, an Australian couple. Saroo grows up happy and even finds some romance with fellow classmate Lucy (Rooney Mara); however, he can’t quite shake his childhood memories of his past. Saroo eventually relents to his inner voice and attempts to search for his lost family.
This story has many amazing parts that Lion tries to cram in. The parts with younger Saroo are Lion’s most potent. We certainly feel lost and abandoned like young Saroo when he gets separated from his brother, and his screams for family are heartbreaking. And when he finally gets adopted, we see him slowly open up to a new set of people he can call his family, including his other adopted brother Mantosh (Divian Ladwa), which is equally compelling. Anchored by a solid performance from newcomer Sunny Pawar, Lion was on the fast track to multiple Oscars.
Apparently too fast a track. Post adoption, Lion zips forward in time at a crazy fast rate to its obvious conclusion, eliminating everything not about Saroo’s search for his past. Aside from one good mini Nicole Kidman monologue, EVERY character gets sucked into superfluousity. Rooney Mara should fire her agent for forcing her to be in a movie where she literally says “I will wait for you.” The search is kind of interesting, but it all gets undone by the unraveling of Saroo’s character. We’re really supposed to believe this guy would quit his job, ignore his girlfriend, and abandon his family in this single minded search? After the movie sets up that this family clearly cares for each other in the little screen time they have together?? Ugh, frustrating. Moana does more with the same concept (longing desire from within) in a Lin-Manuel Miranda song than Lion spends an hour doing onscreen.
The movie doesn’t undercut Lion’s amazing story though. A tale that impressive will turn this movie into forgotten Oscar bait. Try as he may, Harvey Weinstein can’t quite dig himself out of his funk; Big Eyes, Carol, St. Vincent, and now Lion? Maybe his company should stick to producing Project Runway episodes; people seem to like that more.