January 25, 2017 The Skanner Page 7
FILM REVIEW:
Curious Adoptee Tracks Down Birth-Mom in ‘Lion’
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
S
aroo (Dev Patel) had the mis-
fortune of being born into
poverty in India’s Khandwa
district. He lived there with
his single-mom, Kamla (Priyanka
Bose), along with his big brother,
Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), and
younger sister, Shekila (Khushi
Solanki).
His illiterate mother was re-
duced to carrying rocks for a liv-
ing, and she could barely afford
to keep a roof over their heads.
So, when Guddu found a night job
hauling bales of hay, Saroo leapt at
the chance to contribute, too, even
though he was obviously a little
small.
And he promptly fell asleep af-
ter the long ride to the worksite
sitting on his brother’s bike’s
handlebars. “It’s my fault,” Guddu
lamented, before leaving Saroo
alone to spend the night on a train
station bench.
Trouble is, when Guddu failed
to return by daybreak, the frantic
5 year-old inadvertently stowed
away aboard a freight train head-
ed to Bengal, a port-of-call 1,600
miles east. Upon arriving, Saroo
couldn’t get any help from strang-
ers, between his not speaking the
language and his mispronouncing
the name of his hometown, “Ga-
nestalay.”
Consequently, he ended up strug-
gling to survive on the streets un-
til he landed in a local orphanage.
Since Saroo didn’t know his own
Dev Patel plays Saroo who finds his birth mother in India.
last name or where he was from,
he was ultimately shipped off to
Melbourne to meet Sue (Nicole
Kidman) and John Brierley (David
Wenham), an Australian couple
eager to adopt him.
For the next quarter-century,
he enjoyed an idyllic life, wheth-
er playing cricket, swimming in a
cove off the ocean, or dating Lucy
(Rooney Mara), a lovely Aussie
lassie. All was well until the fate-
ful evening a childhood memory
was triggered during a dinner of
Indian food.
Suddenly curious about his
roots, Saroo was subsequently en-
couraged by Lucy to use Google
Earth to find the spot on the plan-
et that he hailed from. Once he
recognized a few familiar places
from his formative years, all that
was left to do was to hop back on
a plane and re-
unite with his
long-lost family.
Adapted from Saroo Brierley’s
autobiography, “A Long Way
Home,” "Lion" is a heartbreaking
biopic that definitely packs an
emotional punch, thanks to pow-
erful performances by Sunny
Pawar and Dev Patel as the young
and adult Saroo, respectively. The
supporting cast features equal-
ly-evocative turns by Rooney
Mara and Nicole Kidman as the
women who played pivotal roles in
the protagonist’s life Down Under.
A bittersweet variation on the “I
was lost, but now I’m found” theme
of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Excellent HHHH
Rated PG-13 for mature themes
and
some
sensu-
ality
Movies cont’d from pg 6
The Salesman (PG-13
for mature themes and
a brief bloody image)
Crime thriller, set in
Tehran, about an Iranian
couple (Taraneh Alidoo-
sti and Shahab Hossei-
ni), appearing in a local
production of Death of
a Salesman, whose rela-
tionship is tested when
the wife is raped right af-
ter they move into a new
apartment. With Babak
Karimi, Mina Sadati and
Emad Emami. (In Persian
with subtitles)
Un Padre No Tan Pa-
dre (PG-13 for profanity,
drug use and partial nu-
dity) Dysfunctional fami-
ly comedy about a cranky
85 year-old (Hector Bo-
nilla) forced to move into
his long-estranged son’s
(Benny Ibarra) hippie
commune after getting
kicked out of his retire-
ment home. Support cast
includes Zamia Fandino,
Camila Selser and Edu-
ardo Tanus. (In Spanish
with subtitles)
SHOWTIMES
A MONSTER CALLS (PG-13)
Fri-Thur: 11:30, 4:10
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS (R)
Fri-Thur: 11:20, 6:30, 9:00
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND
WHERE TO FIND THEM
(PG-13)
Fri-Thur: 11:40, 2:25, 4:00, 6:45
Arts & Entertainment
FILM REVIEW: ‘20th
Century Women’ a
Vivid Triptych of
Personal Portraits
The Week of
Friday, Jan. 27 through
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017
DOCTOR STRANGE (PG-13)
Fri,Mon-Thur: 1:45, 7:15, 9:30
Sat: 1:45, 7:15
TROLLS (PG)
Fri-Thur: 1:55
THEM! (1954) (NR)
Fri-Thur: 5:10, 9:40
$4.00 adults, $3.00 senior citizens (65+),
$3.00 for kids (12 & under)
7818 SE Stark St, Portland, OR 97215
503-252-1707 • AcademyTheaterPdx.com
Babysitting: Available for children 2 to 8 years old. Fri: shows after 3:30pm and before 8:00pm. Sat - Sun: all
shows before 8:00pm. $9.50 per child for the length of the movie. Call to reserve a spot, no drop ins.
‘20th Century Women’ is set in 70’s Santa Barbara.
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
W
ritten and directed by Mike Mills (Be-
ginners), "20th Century Women" is an
inter-generational coming-of-age tale set
in Santa Barbara, California in 1979. The
nostalgic ensemble drama revolves around the ef-
forts of a neurotic single-mom (Annette Bening) to
parent a naive 15 year-old (Lucas Jade Zumann) in
dire need of a role model.
The picture’s protagonist is Dorothea Fields, a
middle-aged chain-smoker who owns the dilapi-
dated rooming house where the bulk of the story
is set. Paradoxically, she recruits a couple of con-
siderably-younger women, Abbie (Greta Gerwig)
See REVIEW on page 11