[Screen It]

 

"LION"
(2016) (Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar) (PG-13)


At-A-Glace Content Summary

Alcohol/Drugs Moderate
Blood/Gross Stuff Minor
Disrespectful/Bad Attitude Heavy
Frightening/Tense Scenes Moderate
Gun/Weapons None
Imitative Behavior Heavy
Jump Scenes Moderate
Music (Scary/Tense) Mild
Music (Inappropriate) None
Profanity Minor
Sex/Nudity Moderate
Smoking Mild
Tense Family Scenes Extreme
Topics to Talk About Heavy
Violence Mild


QUICK TAKE:
Drama: After accidentally ending up one thousand miles from his home, a young and poor Indian boy survives as a street kid, ends up adopted, and later searches for his family as a young man.
PLOT:
It's 1986 and Saroo (SUNNY PAWAR) is a 5-year-old boy growing up dirt poor in Khandwa, India, with his mom, Kamla (PRIYANKA BOSE), older brother, Guddu (ABHISHEK BHARATE), and a toddler sister. Kamla makes next to nothing carrying rocks to feed her family, so Guddu is always out looking for legal and illegal ways to get them food. After Saroo convinces his brother to allow him to join him for work, Guddu ends up leaving the sleepy boy at a train station at night, promising he'll be right back.

But when Saroo wakes up, his brother is nowhere to be found and the station is empty. He eventually ends up boarding an empty train and falls asleep, only to wake up once the train is in motion and all of the doors are locked. Several days later, the train pulls into Calcutta, 1600 kilometers east of his home. Unable to speak the native tongue there and mispronouncing the name of his hometown, young Saroo becomes a street kid and eventually is put into an orphanage.

With the authorities having no idea where he's from and unable to find any family members, they allow Sue (NICOLE KIDMAN) and John Brierley (DAVID WENNHAM) to adopt Saroo and return him to their home in Australia. The boy quickly adapts to his new life there, unlike another adoptive brother, Mantosh (KESHAV JADHAV), who later joins the family and has various developmental issues, such as hitting himself.

Two decades later, Saroo (DEV PATEL) is heading off to get a degree in hotel management and it's there that he meets and eventually ends up dating a fellow student, Lucy (ROONEY MARA). Few know of Saroo's past, but when some of Lucy's friends hear his tale, they inform him of a new technology known as Google Maps that might help him figure out where his home was in India and thus maybe find his family. As he tries to do just that, he keeps his quest secret from his parents, not wanting to disappoint them as grown-up Mantosh (DIVIAN LADWA) has already done.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
Although it stars a young boy in the first half of the film, the most likely audience among kids would be teens interested in the true story or if they're fans of someone in the cast.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13
For thematic material and some sensuality.


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