A long way home movie movie#
However, as evidenced by the opening shot in the movie which finds Saroo between two hills surrounded by butterflies, Fraser also found the natural beauty of the landscapes he was shooting in. In addition to mixing stabilized and choreographed shots with uncontrolled ones, he used the natural lighting to give the movie a cinema verite realism that feels so grounded. Though, the lighting does more than that.
A long way home movie skin#
The way he lights the movie, which in this case was manipulating natural light, does justice to the skin tones of the Indian actors, which, unfortunately, is something that is quite rare. And while his work in Zero Dark Thirty is truly phenomenal - the raid scene ranks among the best shot scenes in the decade - his work on Lioncertainly deserves its recognition. Cinematographer Greig Fraser, who has done some fantastic work including Zero Dark Thirty and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, finally received an overdue Oscar nomination for his work. While the performances give an emotional center for the movie, the cinematography and score do all they can to support them. While much of it is suggested with the editing - they cut in scenes from his past similarly to the way that a war movie would portray PTSD - Patel’s reactions to the memories are even more important.
Patel, on the other hand, depicts the psychological journey. Sunny Pawar puts in some really great work as the young Saroo in a nearly wordless performance. The shift from book to screen infused the story with an element of the mental toll that the story would take on a four-year-old boy and how it shapes the man he becomes. Most of that falls on the shoulders of Dev Patel, who drives much of the story with his physicality and facial expressions. However, this is a story about Saroo and the movie does a lot to portray his emotional journey. I suspect that it will be her Oscar scene. It culminates in an incredible scene that reminds us of Nicole Kidman’s talents. In the movie, we see Sue being affected, not by Saroo’s search, but by the fact that he chose to hide it from her and that he was distant from her. In Saroo’s memoir, he protects his mother from his attempts to find his birth mother in fear that he is going to hurt her. In particular, the character of Sue Brierley is given new life in the movie. And while Lioncertainly toes that line, writer Luke Davies keeps the focus on the character’s emotional journey rather than the physical one. The issue with a lot of movies based on incredible true stories is that the focus of the emotion is on plot, rather than character. However, it’s also one that could easily be exploited for its emotional beats. The journey Saroo takes is an incredible one.
While the story has the plot of a Lifetime movie, it is true, yet improbable as it sounds. Twenty years later as an adult ( Dev Patel), Saroo decides to use Google Earth to find his long-lost family. Eventually, he is taken into an orphanage and is adopted by an Australian family, Sue ( Nicole Kidman) and John ( David Wenham). For months he must fend for himself by eating scraps of food and taking shelter under bridges. After two days on the train, being carried away from his mother, two brothers, and sister, he finds himself in Calcutta (modern-day Kolkatta). While following his older brother to a neighboring town, he becomes trapped in a train carriage. Liontells the true story of Saroo Brierley ( Sunny Pawar), a boy who grew up as poor as one could in India - begging for scraps of food, caring for his young sister while his mother does hard labor. However, Davis’ vision of Saroo’s journey is simultaneously devastating, yet filled with beauty, both human and cinematic. Lion could have easily fallen into the idealistic cookie cutter crowdpleaser category. He simply wasn’t equipped with the talent to translate his too-good-to-be-true story onto the page. That’s not to fault the book’s author and subject Saroo Brierley. Lion is one of the few inspirational true stories that translates beautifully on screen thanks to director Garth Davis and a strong performance by Dev PatelĪ Long Way Home, the book that the movie Lionis based on, is essentially devoid of emotion.
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