February 5, 2017 -- I think I read one critic, writing about this movie, who wrote something like this is a story so good that they can't screw it up, which is true, but they almost did. This is a good story and the acting is very convincing by all the main characters.

The basic story is this: A very young boy gets lost in India. Authorities are unable to locate his parents. He is adopted by a very nice couple in Tasmania. Years later, he uses Google Earth to search for his home town and after a lot of effort, finds it, and is reunited with his birth family. This is based on a famous, true story, as told in the book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose.

The early part of the film works very well. With minimal dialog we see, from the child's perspective how the young boy, Saroo (played by Sunny Pawar) becomes trapped on a train which takes him nearly a thousand miles from home. He ends up in Calcutta (Kolkata) where most people speak Bengali, but he speaks only Hindi. Homeless and alone he tries to figure out how to get back home with no success. He narrowly escapes human traffickers.

Saroo ends up with other lost boys in a center for abandoned children. Luckily, he is adopted by an Australian couple, John and Sue Brierley (played by David Wenham of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and Nicole Kidman of “Australia”) where he is well cared for, and enjoys advantages he never would have had in India.

The story then jumps ahead to two decades later, when Saroo is grown (played by Dev Patel of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and he begins to try to find his family in India. The film makes this search into a kind of torturous, painful journey which alienates him from his friends and family. There is also a great emphasis on Saroo's painful relationship with his psychologically troubled adopted brother, Mantosh Brierley (Divian Ladwa). Fortunately, there is also some emphasis on Saroo's less tortured relationship with his girlfriend, Lucy (Roony Mara of “Side Effects”).

The film spends a lot of time on the emotional troubles between Saroo, his friends, parents and his adopted brother. This leads to a very nice scene between Saroo and his mother. Kidman really nails this scene in which she explains to Saroo exactly why she and her husband adopted him and his bother, Mantosh, as if she has to justify these decisions. This makes Saroo and his brother look really ungrateful and somewhat petty. I hope this part of the story is true, and not overblown. I also wonder if this is an exercise in political correctness. At any rate it sure seems like the film gets off point with this subplot.

The actual discovery, on Google Earth, of Saroo's home town, is a bit like a trip on a Ouija board, the computer pointer heads off to the north, seemingly with a mind of its own. Computer imagery, combined with aerial photography, takes us on a journey of discovery. The tearful reunion is powerful. This is a story you can't screw up. This film rates a B.

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