Here are some photos from the TIFF premiere of Lion. I’ll talk about the film in a moment, but let’s talk about the fashion first. Dev Patel looks great with his hair longer and some facial hair. It makes him look “grown up,” and I think he should keep it. Nicole Kidman wore Nina Ricci and, um, it looks like she bought herself some new assets. I’ve said for a while that Kidman got a noticeable boob job, but seriously, I think she pulled a Taylor Swift and went up a cup size. Either that or this dress just emphasizes already existing work. And then there’s Rooney Mara’s misery guts. So many of you love her, but she’s just so bland and sullen to me. She doesn’t have to be happy-happy-smiley-smiley all the time, but for goodness sake, she looks like she’s mid-eyeroll in every photo. Her dress is Aouadi and it looks like a Christmas tablecloth.
Last month, I watched the trailer for Lion and I had mixed feelings. It’s taken me a while to figure out why. The film is a true story about an Indian man, played by Dev Patel, who was adopted as a child and raised by a white Australian family (his mother is played by Nicole Kidman) in what seems to be affluence and privilege. He has a girlfriend (?) played by Rooney Mara. He starts remembering his life in India, and he decides to go back to find his blood-related family, his brother and mother. Here’s the trailer:
While I always like it when Dev Patel is cast in something – I love Dev Patel and he looks really hot in some of these scenes – I still couldn’t put my finger on what was bugging me. Maybe I still can’t. Like, I’m glad that cast a British-Indian man as an Indian (Dev is doing an Aussie accent, sort of). I think it’s fine that they show a world in which a white family has adopted a kid that everyone presumed was an orphan. The closest explanation I can come up with for why there’s something nagging me is that it feels emotionally exploitative for no real reason? Like, no one did anything “bad,” and yet there seems to be a need to manufacture drama. The adoptive parents did nothing wrong from what I can see, and they loved his character completely. He has every right to go back to India and look for his birth family. So why all of the swelling music and tears? I don’t know. It feels exploitative. For what it’s worth, the reviews coming out of TIFF seem to confirm my suspicions – there’s no real drama there.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Growing up I had a friend who was adopted. Her biological younger brother was also adopted by the same family. Both children were completely loved by their parents and were given everything they needed and most of what they wanted. The little brother was happy and well adjusted and never really gave much thought to the fact that their birth mother had “given them away” (his sister’s words). My friend, however, struggled with serious anxiety and depression over it, even to the point of becoming violent with their parents.
Adoption is a beautiful and wonderful thing but their is a side for those who are adopted that can be really painful and difficult to deal with. I’m sure this movie will resonate with many people.
As for the over dramatization, isn’t that just what Hollywood does now?
I completely agree. Let me just add that in some countries children have a legal right to find out who their parents are. They can sue!!!
just mentioning this because Eartha Kitt never found out who her (probably white) father was. Because his name was blackened in the birth records. Shame that.
So, I have mixed feelings on this. I think the drama isn’t really artificial or even really external in nature. The drama comes from the internal struggle of a person who by happenstance and misfortunate was separated from his family and ended up with a new one in much improved circumstances and the subsequent desire to find your history to better understand yourself. The true story this is based on is absolutely incredible. I have friends who saw it at TIFF this weekend and thought it was very good and that Dev is excellent in it. Apparently, the film feels a little contrived because you know where it was going(especially if you know the story).
As to Mara’s sour face, according to my friends, she is playing the gf with no desires/interests of her own role so that might explain the face.
@ sunny Patricia is a cool girl/ faux goth fembot.? I will pretend I did not read this because that actually makes my black heart feel a little bad for Patricia.
I agree. While on paper it seems simple but i know of many adoptive stories where either the children, adoptive parents or biological parents become overly clingy, upset about the search into their past or harbor resentment through the process. Yes, it may feel exploitive but I think these issues can and have been big dramatic problems in real life. Some adoptive parents do get resentful of the search for bio parents and threatened by the relationship.
I teared up just watching the trailer. A five-year old boy accidentally loses his mom and brother, and they lose him! Of course the situation is dramatic, as is the internal struggle over that.
you should tell off Rooney Mara for her lack of enthusiam. She has to promote a probably slightly artificially-dramatic movie and her face says clearly she doesn’t want to do it and she doesn’t want to be there.
Why girl?
It is your movie, too, so do promote the movie with 100% enthusiam even if it is fake. With your face right now you are saying that you dont like your own movie. WFT??? you don’t like your own work??? Are you really just that spoilt rich girl from a billionaire-family waiting for some director-genius to give you a brilliant script with an oscar-guarantee for your part???
You know, I don’t like Blake Lively but she would promote the movie as if it were Oscar-bait and nobel-prize-in-literature worthy. I would probably ridicule her for that but nevertheless.
Her sister is very different – she makes the effort to promote her work. Rooney fronts like she’s over the whole PR schtick and is in it for the ‘art’ only. She’s a good actress (not amazing) – her dour look is probably the reason why she gets the roles she does i.e. the tortured soul etc.. And yes I do think she is a spoilt rich girl who had her career handed to her – she’s another Goop but with more talent.
@ Betti
How much more talent than Lively? I find it hard to describe as there are more movies out with Lively than with Mara. And I think that Mara can afford and probably does chose her party more carefully whereas Lively had to take what she was offered.
Hmm, my first impression was that she looked exhausted and sad. Maybe she’s going through some troubles.
I always think she is an introvert who looks uncomfortable in the public eye.
Dev is sooOo hot in these pics! Wow
Absolutely..! What a gorgeous man.
Agreed. He’s gorgeous!
He looks great! When I saw him, I was thinking about that story he told where a designer basically asked Freida Pinto in front of Dev why she was with such an ugly guy…. which kind of blew my mind when I first read it, because I think he’s very handsome.
Ugly! He was never ugly! Maybe not as hot as he is now, but truly, grooming does enhance a man’s looks. Dev always had the goods.
He is very attractive, but I think he looks souch better with short hair and clean shaven, ala Newsroom.
I agree. DAMN DEV.
He is just adorable, I’ve always thought so.
Rooney is a fine actress… but I’m over her downer expression. It has become a THING with her. And I think she is doing it on purpose. Makes me not want to see her in a film. Silly I know but there it is. She could muster up a bit of emotion. OR go see someone if she is in fact in constant depression.
If there’s something wrong with her, I feel for her. I’ve been struggling with depression since my early teen years, and I went to see a therapist at the age of 18. It wasn’t a great fit, and I wasn’t ready. Convinced that therapy doesn’t help, it took me another eleven years to try again. My sessions ended nine months ago, and I’m now stable and happy for the first time in my life. But it was a long road.
Anyway – we don’t even know whether she’s depressed. All I’m saying is that if she is, it may not be as easy as “go see someone.” It can be one of the toughest things to take that first step towards therapy, because… trust, and change.
Or maybe shes just uncomfortable with all the attention on a red carpet? I’ve seen her in interviews and she seems quite shy.
She doesn’t have to smile, but she should at lest stand up straight!
Thank you. Her posture (and truthfully that of many of her peers) drives me crazy. You’re getting paid millions, stand the hell up straight! Posture people!
Exactly, stand up straight and pull up the corners of your mouth just a bit.
When did Dev Patel get hot? I have read a lot of good reviews for this film and it makes me more excited to go see it. I hope it is good enough to get him an Oscar nom.
I hope Patricia’s miserable self never changes. I cannot stand her or her so called talent, but I do like that she is consistent. Her dress is cute, but I wish she had chosen a different shoe. Also, for someone who practices ballet, she has the worst posture. My back and neck hurt just looking at her.
Rooney looks like she has cramps. But she always looks like she has cramps. The proportions on Nicole’s dress seem off. Dev looks great.
Kidman’s dress is a thing of true hideousness. Hideosity. It deserves a whole new word it’s so hideous, but I am so flummoxed by its hideousness that I’m squinting my eyes and my mind as I type this.
It’s also eating her hands. Someone should save her.
I blame the stylist
I never got Rooney until I saw the movie Carol. She was positively luminous on screen with those eyes showing so much expression. She really won me over, even if she is wooden on red carpets.
Yep, she was pretty wonderful in that.
On first glance I thought Dev was that guy from LOST.
He and Naveen Andrews do favor one another. Both very handsome men.
My God. The expresion on all of their faces in that top photo. Priceless.
Dev looks so hot
Sorry, Kaiser, got to disagree with you on Dev Patel’s ‘sort of’ Aussie accent. I spent years of my childhood there and that’s one of the very very few convincing ones I’ve heard from a foreign actor (from the trailer anyway, it might slip over 2 hours I guess) It’s not overly exaggerated, which is where most go wrong and end up sounding like a parody.
I think Rooney has said that these things give her panic attacks, so I have sympathy for her. She seems animated in photos of her just chatting with people. She just seems to really hate this side of it all.
Well so why choose a career that needs a certain kind of behavior to promote a movie. The thing with Rooney is that she used to be different when started her career. Then she got tgwtdt role and suddenly she became all artsy and shy.
But she is doin her job. She’s there. She’s giving interviews. Her only fault seems to be not smiling in photos which is hardly unprofessional.
I think Dev is doing a very good Aussie accent as well. And he looks really great with a beard and longer hair, very attractive.
I sorta kinda like Nicole’s dress but, is it me, or does she look like she’s sporting a baby bump? (shrug) Rooney either needs to get help for whatever ails her or she needs to grow up and at least look like she wants to promote her film. She sure doesn’t look like she wants to be there, does she?
Nicole always stands like this , it’s an ugly pose. She is beautiful and thin but this pose makes her look pregnant everytime.
Of course it’s all emotionally manipulative with heart on your sleeve music and happy endings, it’s a Weinstein movie and all his Oscar bait films follow a predictable pattern BECAUSE American audiences lap it up and Oscar voters will dig it. Oscar voters notoriously hate moral ambiguity or unhappy outcomes.
Her posture is terrible
Rooney Mara should smile more? There isn’t anything wrong with her expression.
Thank you. I agree.
I think Nicole Kidman just gained some weight. She looks fuller overall – even her arms and torso.
Looks like a Hallmark movie. No thanks. Plus it’s a Weinstein movie, so — nope.
Dev looks great!! He should be in more things.
I can’t believe Kidman walked out of her hotel room having been styled like this. From the awful hair down to the granny shoes, she looks dreadful. But get ready to see more of this: Harvey is getting out the big guns.
And no, I don’t think at 49 that Kidman has a baby bump. She has a 49-year-old stomach and it protrudes nowadays.
I just want her to wear her hair down once!
Rooney mara and this Ariana Grande Pre-Cry Face…. SMDH
Dev looks so very handsome though!
Anything with David Wenham in it gets two thumbs up from me. That man can do anything. He was wonderful in “Killing Time”, and “Top of the Lake”, also no slouch in the LOTR series. A fair dinkum cobber who can turn his hand to a British or American accent with panache.
Dev has always been a cutie, he has done so well since Skins.
Maybe Rooney Mara doesn’t like her teeth.
Or maybe she’s contemplating Nicole Kidman’s dress.
I wish Nicole would embrace her curly red hair… Her hair hasn’t been looking good for a while…
I heard this was based on a true story. I want to see it. It looks like I’ll need a box of Kleenex. And dang Dev Patel is HOT!
” …she’s just so bland and sullen to me. She doesn’t have to be happy-happy-smiley-smiley all the time, but for goodness sake, she looks like she’s mid-eyeroll in every photo. ”
YES! I want to shake her real hard, but I doubt I’d get anything out of her. Such a miserable sou. Kate Mara is pretty dry as well, but at least she stands up straight and smiles occasionally.
Fugly dress on Nicole Kidman. Maybe she just gained a few pounds so she looks bustier. I find Rooney Mara fascinating. That dress is interesting. I don’t hate it. Dev Patel has always been handsome as far as I’m concerned.
I HATE the Hollywood thing of making emotional movies about adopted kids seeking out their birth families and it’s some huge epic moment filled with self-understanding when they find them.
Adopted kids for the most part see their adoptive families as being their family. No ‘adoptive’ parents. They are their parents. This is especially true when raised from infancy.
SOME adopted kids feel something when they meet biological family, but being biologically related to some strangers doesn’t override your connection to the family who raised you. It’s usually not some magical moment where feelings of belonging and understanding flood you because you finally found your ‘real family’. It makes adoptees who meet their biological relatives and feel nothing feel guilty and like something is wrong with them.
I guess I’m salty about it because it’s an issue I’m personally connected to, but I really hate the typical Hollywood portrayal of adoption. This movie uses some of those tropes and thus earns my ire. I’m tired of seeing adoptive ties being portrayed as weaker or less meaningful than blood ones.
Dev’s aussie accent is actually really good from what I’m seeing.