I feel like I’ve been waiting for Dev Patel to get a starring role such as his in Slumdog Millionaire since well….Slumdog Millionaire. While he’s had the chance to demonstrate his chops in bit roles in The Newsroom and the indie The Road Within he’s never quite been given the chances his peers have had to showcase just what makes him such a superb talent. I’d much rather see Patel up for roles than Ansel Elgort. With Lion directed by Garth Davis (Top of the Lake) it seems like perhaps he’s finally getting his moment and it’s coming in a possibly awards primed package. Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman star alongside Patel in this based on real events story about a young man who is lead back to his family by the help of Google maps and it looks like beautiful stuff.
The trailer has me hooked and it looks to be Weinsteins big awards contender of 2016, so look for a push later in the year. The film will be released on November 25th nationwide and will be premiering at this years Toronto International Film Festival.
Five-year-old Saroo finds himself alone and traveling on the wrong train away from his home in northern India. Frightened and bewildered, he ends up thousands of miles away, in chaotic Kolkata. Somehow he survives living on the streets, dodging all sorts of terrors in the process. Eventually ending up in an orphanage, Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple, and finds safety and love as he grows up in Hobart. Not wanting to hurt his adoptive parents’ feelings, he buries his past, his emotional need for reunification and his hope of ever finding his lost mother and brother. But a chance meeting with some fellow Indians reawakens his secret yearnings. With just a small store of memories, and the help of some newly-developed satellite-imaging technology, Saroo embarks on one of the greatest needle-in-a-haystack quests of modern times.
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