Movie of the Week: Lion

One Sunday at the Lunch table, my brother and his wife started talking about a great movie they had just saw – and they basically told us the whole story of the movie. Lion, A Long Way Home was suddenly a movie I desperately wanted to watch. For the following 3 I wanted to watch it, but there were no theaters near me that were playing it. Luckily when I got back to Lisbon, the movie was still at one theater somehow, and so I finally went, dragging my mom with me.

I don’t think I ever cried as much while watching a movie.

Surely you know the story by now, right?

Five year old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.

But the story, based on real events, is much deeper than that. We see Saroo’s struggles for years, since the moment he gets lost at 5 years old, managing to survive in unbelievable circumstances, to his issues when older, uncertain of where he belongs, feeling guilty for having a better life than the ones he left behind, and without being able to find them, and the frustration of it all.

It’s a movie that pulls at your heartstrings. It’s beautiful in its simplicity!

Everyone is great in the movie. I’m a huge fan of Dev Patel since Slumdog Millionaire, but in a way, his role here is even sadder and even more amazing. The rest of the cast is also amazing, especially little Sunny Pawar and Nicole Kidman.

It gets 5 stars from me, because I loved this movie so so much…

Now to you. Have you seen Lion? Thoughts???

Cocky Bastard (Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland)

He was someone who belonged in my wildest fantasies instead of a rest stop in the middle of Nebraska.

A sexy, cocky, Australian named Chance was the last person I expected to run into on my cross-country drive.

When my car broke down, we made a deal. Next thing I knew, we were traveling together, spending sexually-tense nights in hotels and taking unplanned detours.

My ordinary road trip turned into the adventure of a lifetime. It was all fun and games until things got intense.

I wanted him, but Chance wouldn’t make a move. I thought he wanted me too, but something was holding him back.

I wasn’t supposed to fall for the cocky bastard, especially when I knew we’d be going our separate ways.

All good things must come to an end, right?

Except our ending was one I didn’t see coming.

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I think I’m trying to go through all the Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s books, because they just make me feel good. I started this one on a whim, and once again it made me laugh out loud and completely forget the world while listening to it, so YAY. Because the writing is great, the collaboration between these two authors produce fantastic books.

The book has an unique distribution, where it’s divided in two parts. Part one is told through Aubrey’s POV, and is set 2 years before part 2, which is told through Chance’s POV. It made a lot of sense to divide the book like this. Part 1 is all about the road trip, and Aubrey and Chance getting to know each other and falling in love, and while we know that Chance is keeping a secret and holding back, we don’t know why until part 2. Part 2 is all about grovelling and Chance trying to win Aubrey back.

I loved part one, which is narrated by Michelle Ferguson and she did an amazing job. But I had a lot of issues with the second part of the book and I blame that entirely on the narrator, Aaron Abano. The actor didn’t quite manage in this book, he overdid his accent, and he overdid his tone of voice, in a way that it sounded like he was shouting all the freaking time. It was a bit exhausting.

But back to the story. I liked both characters a lot. In part one Aubrey learns how to admit the things she really loves and start living by her own standards and not other people’s. I loved her growth and to see her becoming more confident and sure of herself. But I couldn’t help feeling that a little bit of that was lost in the second part of the book, unfortunately.

I did like Chance and his undying determination. He was a riot. He was also just a tiny bit too determined, but he knew what he wanted and he fought for it, no matter the price. Good for him.

While I liked all the road trip and all the groveling later, I didn’t like some other minor things. Like, I think that the 2 years gap was a bit excessive… I seriously doubt that in the real world it would have come to that. Then I truly hated that Aubrey kept stringing two guys along at the same time… I understand that she had a boyfriend, Dick – the Princess Fucker, and was happy before Chance showed up. But she kept her boyfriend, even when she was unsure about Chance and giving him a chance at the same time. That felt wrong to me.

But even with some issues and a bad narrator, this book still made me laugh out loud and was super entertaining. I mean, there’s a goat who faints each time it gets scared!!! Give it a read 😉 .