Life Of Pi (2012)

Life Of Pi (2012)

Based on the popular 2001 novel by Canada’s Yann Martel, Life of Pi tells the incredible story of Pi, a young man faced with surviving at sea for 227 days following a shipwreck.

The three-act narrative begins with an extended amount of time focusing on Pi’s childhood in Pondicherry, India. His odd name, Piscine, comes from a pool in France and unfortunately sounds a whole lot like the word “pissing” to the delight of cruel classmates. How Pi earns his new shortened urine-free name as well as the respect of his peers displays his intellect and creativity.

Young Pi becomes obsessed with faith and though raised Hindu, learns and practices many other religions including Christianity and Islam, taking a bit out of each while seeking to love and understand God.

Pi’s father (not Matt Damon) owns a zoo and it’s there that Pi learns an early lesson about the brutality of the animal world when he is forced to watch the zoo’s Bengal Tiger, Richard Parker (the name is due to a clerical error), make lunch out of a poor little goat.



Grisly childhood-scarring memories aside, everything is going pretty well for Pi when one day his father announces that he plans to sell off the animals and move the family to Canada to start a new life. They set out on a passenger ship with many of the animals aboard. A terrible storm hits and the ship is destroyed, leaving Pi the only survivor on a small lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.
Well, he’s not really the only one. He’s joined by a few of the animals,



Let’s start with what everyone is talking about. From the opening credits to the final frame this is a gorgeous, gorgeous movie that demands to be seen on a theater screen. Ang Lee is known for creating striking visuals, but he (along with cinematographer Claudio Miranda and the countless unsung digital artists) has outdone himself here. Every frame looks almost painting-like, with meticulous attention to detail and breathtaking images that will linger in your mind long after they’ve left the screen.

Most impressive for me was the depiction of water, really a character itself, serving as both as a beautifully serene reflector as well as a raging beast more powerful than a million Richard Parkers. From the violent shipwreck scene to the long stretches of quiet, sparkling beauty, it’s never anything less than extraordinary.

This film contains the best use of 3-D I’ve ever seen in a movie. While I’m sure it’s also beautiful in 2-D, the 3-D is used in a way that it further enhances the intense action as well as the calm, dreamlike seascapes while drawing the viewer into the story even more. Most importantly, it flows and hardly ever seems gimmicky (except for one instance involving a pointer that came off a little clunky). Don’t be stingy on this one, pay the extra couple of dollars and opt for the 3-D version if given the choice. You will not regret it.

Likewise, the CGI effects are exceptional, especially in bringing the animals to life. It’s nearly impossible to tell which Richard Parker is a real Bengal tiger and which is a digitally created one (In actuality, lead actor Suraj Sharma and the four live tigers used for the film never shared any scenes on the lifeboat together).



While the eyes and facial expressions of the tiger always look lifelike, Lee is very careful to depict Richard Parker as anything more than an animal, and one that will not hesitate to kill at any given moment. At the same time though, a relationship does develop between Pi and Parker, but it’s one of mutual respect rather than a friendship. The scenes of the two together are the best in the film and a big part of what makes it so special.