Sometimes the Academy Awards nominate a movie that just does not resonate with me. Lion is the one this year.
What it had going for it was the cinematography Greig Fraser because every shot was just beautiful, no matter if it was an aerial shot of the land or in an enclosed space for dramatic effect. It's hard not to love the imagery and the scenic views of the outskirts in India.
Also, the performances here were no doubt brilliant by Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, and especially young Sunny Pawar who stole the limelight with his pure innocence. Whenever the young boy took flight you could not help but encouraged him silently in your heart.
But I thought Rooney Mara's performance was a little awkward at first. And I would lay the blame on director Garth Davis because it was his vision and direction to Mara on creating that character. Not only that, but the way he paced this movie, the way he presented the main character Saroo in the second act, the decisions that Saroo made to keep his intentions secret from his family; I just could not agree with Davis' vision.
I thought the movie could have gone a little shorter and not dragged on that second half for that many scenes. I could appreciate the subtlety Davis employed but maybe it was too subtle at times.
So much so that I could not feel any emotional connection with the characters. That's why after the credits started rolling, those clips hit me hard emotionally and surprised me because throughout the story I just did not feel much.
But as his first feature film, Davis did a very commendable job with this movie. Everything was done with a high standard of quality with a subject may not have been the easiest to turn into a movie. He definitely is going to be a sought after director now.
No comments:
Post a Comment