Jeffrey Wells to David O. Russell: “It’s cool that you’ll be co-presenting Lion with Lee Daniels at [an event next week]. I’m a limited fan. I love the beginning section with the kid lost and alone and not knowing what to do, and of course the finale definitely works.

“But just between you, me and the walls…do you really and truly like the Dev Patel middle portion in Australia with Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, etc.? I hated that part of it. I hate that sensitive hurting look on Patel’s face…’I don’t feel whole, I don’t really know who I am, I’m adopted, I have to find my home,’ etc. I didn’t give a shit about any of that. I didn’t care about Patel or his relationship with Rooney…none of it. I almost walked out.

“Then Dev finally makes his way back to India and finds the village and reunites with his mom….THAT part works. So it’s that plus the kid in the beginning with a dead middle section.

“I realize that Joe and Jane Popcorn love this film (it won the Audience Award in Toronto), but it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that you, the crazy-brilliant David O. Russell, would really be into. But whatever. What do I know?”