After initially hearing about Lion this summer, I put in on my must see movie list. It stayed on my radar through the mad schedule of award season releases. Unfortunately, for weeks I was unable to find local showtimes. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see it. Luckily, it started screening near me last week. After hearing all the early awards buzz, I was afraid Lion wouldn’t be as good as I had hoped. It seemed to be flying past a lot of peoples’ favorites of the year.

     For me, this is by far one of the best movies of the year. Talk about emotion! This film is amazingly powerful and moving. This is Garth Davis’ first directorial effort and I’m excited to see what he brings us next. The story follows a young boy growing up in India who gets lost and moves to Australia. Eventually, he decides to go on a search for his biological family and show his mother he survived after all those years.

     It played out much different than I initially thought. The general structure is the same as I expected but the amount of time spent during various periods of the boy’s life aren’t divided like you’d think. It spends a lot of time on his childhood. I feared that this wouldn’t leave enough time for his adult years and search for home. Fortunately, I felt that each period got its due time and combined together to make a really strong film.

     In terms of the film’s technical strengths, it has amazing editing and acting as well as a wonderful score. In particular, the film’s progression from one time period to another feels very natural. It does a good job of weaving in the main character’s past memories with what is going on in the present. Dave Patel, who was also the main star in Slumdog Millionaire, definitely deserves an Oscar nomination. It is one of the best acting performances of the year and in my opinion, I’d like to see him win. As I said before, the score compliments the events of the movie really nicely. I think that’s what the main purpose of a score is. To help enhance what is unfolding on screen. The music in Lion achieves that.

     With regards to more broad picture stuff, there are two main elements of the story that I believe enhance the experience because of how well they play out. First, is all the complications and realities the young boy must face after getting lost in a India during the 1980’s. There’s no internet available and he travels far enough that the people he encounters speak a different language than him. This, combined with the horrible conditions of Indian orphanages shows that leaving India was a hard but necessary decision that needed to be made for the boy. You get why certain choices are made. Additionally, the movie does a remarkable job at conveying the PTSD-like symptoms that the character faces after he starts remembering aspects of his childhood that inspire him to start the search for his biological family. You get to see how broken down he is by the events that have transpired in his life. For a large portion of his life, he seemed to kind of shove it to the side but when it re-enters his life it hits him like a ton of bricks. I think this area of the movie works not only because of the filming but because of Dave Patel. Without a strong actor, the movie could’ve fallen apart. That’s why I hope his performance is recognized.

     The only slight negative of the film is its pacing. The issues I had mostly occurred in the earlier parts of the story. I felt that a few scenes dragged out for a bit too long but at the same time, I don’t know if without them the emotional impact as the film goes on would’ve been as strong.

     Lion is a movie that I think a lot of people haven’t gotten around to seeing. If it’s playing by you, I highly encourage you to check it out. It’ one of my favorites of the year and even if it doesn’t get major awards consideration, I think it deserves it. I give Lion a 9/10.