Lion

(Warning: contains spoilers about Lion)

Lion - film about a boy in India who grows up to become Dev Patel.  Same as Slumdog Millionaire?  Well, yes, that bit is, but the rest of it - not so much.

The film that made checking Google Earth look interesting

Five year old Saroo (a beautifully engaging debut from Sunny Pawar) and his family all do their parts to bring money to the family.  Wanting to spend more time with big brother Guddu, he wheedles and begs (as only little siblings can) to come along on a night time job, and gets lost when he accidentally gets carried off on a freight train.  Suddenly, he is 1600km away from home, unable to speak the language and, with a 5 year-old understanding of the world, doesn't know where he is or who his family are (because at 5, your mum's only name is "mum").  Relying on a basic survival instinct, Saroo navigates various harms and winds up on a childrens home, where he is subsequently adopted by an Australian couple - Sue and John Brierley - and moves to Tasmania.
Skipping to the present day (2008), Saroo has turned into Dev Patel, who has a sudden moment of remembrance as he tries jalebi (the sweet delicacy he was never able to afford as a child) in university.  He begins a quest to find his biological family using the newly established Google Earth, and the haziest of landmarks from the back of his memory.

Jalebi - totally good for you, they taste like the frosting on Krispy Kremes.

The film is based on the book (A Long Way Home) of the real life story of the real life Saroo, and it makes for a good film.  The story is told very efficiently - there is very little time spent with Guddu and Saroo, but their relationship is quickly very realistic, and the actions of both are very understandable.  The scenes of a young Saroo, lost in the crowds of Calcutta are vivid and overwhelming, and director Garth Davis (in a strong directorial debut) filmed these scenes at knee height - so we experience what Saroo experiences: legs and knees, and blurred, unfamiliar crowds.  We have all been lost at one point or another, and Lion does an excellent job of capturing the bewildering horror of not knowing where you are, and not knowing how to make yourself understood.  The horrors that young Saroo faces are not always clear - there are people that he runs from that we instinctively understand to be "bad", even though they have not done anything to suggest that belief.  Maybe that was the point - it doesn't matter if people are bad or not: if you're scared, run.

The Brierley's story, though a sub-plot, is equally compelling.  Played quietly and sensitively by Nicole Kidman (an adoptive parent herself) and David Wenham, they decide not to have any biological children (believing the world too overpopulated) and only adopt.  After having such success with Saroo, (who appears to have adapted to his new life well) they adopt Mantosh - a boy of a similar age who has issues of rage and self harm because of his own traumatic history, and the idyll of family life as a three becomes difficult as a family of four.

Adult-Saroo walks a tightrope of being desperate to find his biological family, while not causing distress to his adoptive family.  His task appears insurmountable, and Davis does a great job of a. making someone looking on Google Earth interesting and b. demonstrating the enormity of that task using an increasing amount of maps and drawing pins.

Saroo's family are somewhere in this circle.  Easy, right?

The film's conclusion packs an emotional punch, and it is worth staying around for the credits, in which photographs and updates from the real Saroo bring us up to the present day.  It's one of the few films I've been to where the audience didn't just get up as soon as the credits started rolling (why do people do that?  Even in Marvel films where there's ALWAYS extra stuff?).  Worth seeing.  It will stay with you long after the film has finished.

Additional thoughts, comments and questions:

• This has picked up six Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Dev Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman), Best Film, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay.  Tough categories.  If I was guessing, I'd say it's not going to win any, which is a shame.  But I would be happy to be wrong.
• Google Earth have a feature whereby you can track Saroo's journey:  http://www.indiewire.com/2016/11/saroo-brierley-lion-google-earth-dev-patel-1201748613/ 
• It's interesting to see how far Google Earth has come on since 2008.  The blurriness of the detail that Saroo deals with makes his task all the more impressive.