Movie recommendations please !

[Jerome]

Lion – a movie starring Dev Patel (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) and Nicole Kidman. 

Based on the true story of Saroo, a young Indian boy (aged about 5) who gets separated from his older brother, falls asleep on a train and ends up travelling 1,500km away from where he started (which he had no way of calculating), finally getting off in Calcutta. Only able to speak Hindi, he struggles to communicate as the language of Calcutta is Bengali – this complicates matters even further - he's utterly and definitively lost. Scarily, 80,000 children go missing in India every year – it’s a staggering and horrific statistic. After living rough for a few months and eluding kidnappers and other evil adults, he’s taken to an orphanage where they supposedly try to trace his mother but ultimately he is adopted by a Tasmanian couple. 

Twenty odd years later, he starts remembering things and develops a burning desire to find his family, plagued by the notion that they don't know what happened to him. The only problem is that no-one’s ever heard of the town he comes from and all he knows is that his mother’s job was to carry rocks – she was a labourer, and that her name was ‘mum’. He begins a search on Google earth taking into account the distance he imagines he might have travelled, calculated on the speed of the trains in those days plus the length of time he was on board, and the images he can remember, i.e. a water tank opposite the station.
 
It’s a real emotional roller coaster ride – all the more incredible because it’s true. The cinematography captures the sprawling vastness of India and the extreme poverty and dire conditions under which a seething mass of humanity somehow survives. The western world has no idea. Those kids are the most vulnerable human beings on the planet – it’s absolutely harrowing to think of – 11 million children living on the streets! The human race is an abomination sometimes – truly. This was a lucky boy indeed.
 
A real eye-opener and a good movie. Recommended. 


Watched this when I was in SA a couple of months back. Brilliant movie! A 'must-see' IMO.

[Lovely Linda]

Lion – a movie starring Dev Patel (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) and Nicole Kidman. 

Based on the true story of Saroo, a young Indian boy (aged about 5) who gets separated from his older brother, falls asleep on a train and ends up travelling 1,500km away from where he started (which he had no way of calculating), finally getting off in Calcutta. Only able to speak Hindi, he struggles to communicate as the language of Calcutta is Bengali – this complicates matters even further - he's utterly and definitively lost. Scarily, 80,000 children go missing in India every year – it’s a staggering and horrific statistic. After living rough for a few months and eluding kidnappers and other evil adults, he’s taken to an orphanage where they supposedly try to trace his mother but ultimately he is adopted by a Tasmanian couple. 

Twenty odd years later, he starts remembering things and develops a burning desire to find his family, plagued by the notion that they don't know what happened to him. The only problem is that no-one’s ever heard of the town he comes from and all he knows is that his mother’s job was to carry rocks – she was a labourer, and that her name was ‘mum’. He begins a search on Google earth taking into account the distance he imagines he might have travelled, calculated on the speed of the trains in those days plus the length of time he was on board, and the images he can remember, i.e. a water tank opposite the station.
 
It’s a real emotional roller coaster ride – all the more incredible because it’s true. The cinematography captures the sprawling vastness of India and the extreme poverty and dire conditions under which a seething mass of humanity somehow survives. The western world has no idea. Those kids are the most vulnerable human beings on the planet – it’s absolutely harrowing to think of – 11 million children living on the streets! The human race is an abomination sometimes – truly. This was a lucky boy indeed.
 
A real eye-opener and a good movie. Recommended. 


Watched this when I was in SA a couple of months back. Brilliant movie! A 'must-see' IMO.

I don't have to see the movie. I feel like I already have
Great review Ruby!! Best I have ever heard!
I will be looking for the film   I love movies based on a true story.

[Ruby]

Lion – a movie starring Dev Patel (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) and Nicole Kidman. 

Based on the true story of Saroo, a young Indian boy (aged about 5) who gets separated from his older brother, falls asleep on a train and ends up travelling 1,500km away from where he started (which he had no way of calculating), finally getting off in Calcutta. Only able to speak Hindi, he struggles to communicate as the language of Calcutta is Bengali – this complicates matters even further - he's utterly and definitively lost. Scarily, 80,000 children go missing in India every year – it’s a staggering and horrific statistic. After living rough for a few months and eluding kidnappers and other evil adults, he’s taken to an orphanage where they supposedly try to trace his mother but ultimately he is adopted by a Tasmanian couple. 

Twenty odd years later, he starts remembering things and develops a burning desire to find his family, plagued by the notion that they don't know what happened to him. The only problem is that no-one’s ever heard of the town he comes from and all he knows is that his mother’s job was to carry rocks – she was a labourer, and that her name was ‘mum’. He begins a search on Google earth taking into account the distance he imagines he might have travelled, calculated on the speed of the trains in those days plus the length of time he was on board, and the images he can remember, i.e. a water tank opposite the station.
 
It’s a real emotional roller coaster ride – all the more incredible because it’s true. The cinematography captures the sprawling vastness of India and the extreme poverty and dire conditions under which a seething mass of humanity somehow survives. The western world has no idea. Those kids are the most vulnerable human beings on the planet – it’s absolutely harrowing to think of – 11 million children living on the streets! The human race is an abomination sometimes – truly. This was a lucky boy indeed.
 
A real eye-opener and a good movie. Recommended. 


Watched this when I was in SA a couple of months back. Brilliant movie! A 'must-see' IMO.

I don't have to see the movie. I feel like I already have
Great review Ruby!! Best I have ever heard!
I will be looking for the film   I love movies based on a true story.

Just make sure you have the tissues nearby!! 

[Jerome]

Watch 'Snowden' (on Netflix) - a must see.

[Lovely Linda]

I'm watching The Help tonight.

Wonderful movie!!

[Jerome]

Snowden - intriguing movie - really enjoyed it

[Oceansoul]

I watched Blade Runner 2049. I liked it and think it is a good film.

[SteveO]

Saw Jennifer Lawrence in Mother!. Curiosity got the best of me. Her performance is astounding...a shoe in for an Oscar nominee! Now the movie.....disturbing with a lot of loose ends and confusion ...read the reviews for its' meaning...strange.

[Lovely Linda]

Watching Meet Joe Black.
Don't understand why it got such bad reviews. I love that movie!!
Have seen it many many times.

[Jerome]

The March of the Penguins - fascinating piece of film.