Following the story of a little boy who gets lost and separated from his family by hundreds of miles in India, placed in an orphanage, and eventually adopted out to Australia, the film then jumps forward to young adulthood where Saroo, played by Dev Patel, flounders in his existential discontent until he finds his way back home. The film is all very sweeping and grand, and you’re definitely going to need Kleenex, but in the days afterwards, it doesn’t haunt you. It’s mostly forgettable. Another Tuesday night Lifetime tearjerker that’s forgotten by the weekend. The first half of the film really portrays India as a God awful country, which presumably should appeal to Americans but makes global travelers squirm. I understand that this is autobiographical, and I’m sure when you’re lost at 5 years old anywhere would seem monstrous, but the film panders to Western stereotypes of other countries. When we meet the adult Saroo, Patel’s playing of the guilt and existential discontent doesn’t ring true. I get what he’s trying to achieve, but it rings hollow and ultimately feels like what the character states he’s trying to avoid, he just seems ungrateful and the relationship with his girlfriend seems false. Nicole Kidman delivers a powerful monologue at the end of the film, but the whole thing wraps up too nicely. For a kid with so much high-minded questioning, never is it addressed what will happen after he finds his mother. That to me would be interesting. What do you do when you’re now a privileged Westerner and reconnect with a mother whose language you no longer speak living in abject poverty in India? That, to me, is a far more interesting story, but it’s totally neglected. What Lion does do well is capture the human spirit when it needs to satisfy its deepest longing, whatever that longing may be, one simply can’t just put it down and go on to live as a whole human being. Something’s must be followed through to the end, wherever that end leads us. Lion’s end is a bit too trite, but still is well worth watching… And it leaves me longing for Indian food.