A to Z Challenge - L is for Long Way Home Film Adaption

Today's post for the A to Z challenge was one that I changed my mind on.  At first I was going to write about Lost Horizon, the classic Frank Capra film.  But at the last second I decided to change my post on L to Lion, most recently nominated for Best Picture in the 2016 Oscars.  My main goal for the A to Z Challenge is to talk about movies that haven't been watched in a long time, or may not be watched enough.  This is why I choose Lion.

When I went to see it a few months ago I will admit that I had no idea what it was about.  Sometimes that works better with a film, you have no expectations and can be watched with an open mind.  All I knew was that it was nominated for Best Picture which meant I had to see it.  This turned out to be a great decision on my part.

The movie is based on a true story about a young boy living in Western India in the 1980's who falls asleep on an empty train one night.  When he wakes up the train is traveling and he can't get off.  A few days later he is in Eastern India lost, confused and speaking a different language.  Eventually he ends up in an orphanage and is adopted by an Australian couple who raise him in Tasmania.

Twenty years later his memory is triggered and realizes that he doesn't know where he is from and what has happened to his family.  Since this was the time when Google Earth came online, he attempts to trace back the train ride to find his hometown.  He has a memory of a water tower at the train station, but not much more than that.

This movie is so well acted by Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Sunny Pawar who plays Saroo as a child in his first movie debut is amazing.  This kid is so talented and carries the first half of the movie, which to let you know that is it in subtitles since people are speaking Hindi or Bengali.  Don't make me pull back out my subtitles rant from a few days ago, get over it.

This film did move me, partially because it does have adoption as a story line, but because it is such a well done movie.  Really good.  In fact I've seen four of the nine films nominated, including the Best Picture winner, and this is the best of all of them.  If life was fair this would have won Best Picture, but it doesn't always work out that way, sometimes people overlook quality.

Please see this movie.  It is such a heartwarming film, like a Frank Capra classic, but this is real life and that sometimes is more interesting that fiction.