"Life of Pi" Review

Life of Pi is an incredible story of survival dressed in mystery, thrills and intrigue. Fifteen-year-old Piscine Molitor (Suraj Sharma), nicknamed "Pi", becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck, forced to share his meager lifeboat with an unaccepted passenger: a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The novel reads like a magical but harrowing fairy tale and quickly garnered a large audience. When whispers of a film version rang in the air, however, most of novel's fans were skeptical, if not angered. The ambiguity and the spirituality so vitally entwined in the fabrication of Pi's story caused many to consider the novel "unfilmable."

Well, movie-master Ang Lee showed them.

Life of Pi
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan & Adil Hussain
Directed by Ang Lee
My Opinion: 3D is vital to fully experience the beauty of this film
but everything is wonderful about it.

Lee adds an extra character to his telling: a writer desperate for a new story. He's told that there is a man who has a story that will "make you believe in God." That man, of course, is Pi (Irrfan Khan), now a grown adult. Although this use of a frame narrative has been done before, it works seamlessly in this film. The adult Pi explains everything, the history of his given name, his nickname and the introduction of Richard Parker, who was the most valuable member of Pi's father's zoo.

I've never been a fan of 3D, but this movie would not be the same without it. As beautiful as Yann Martel's language is, Lee's imagery give the best-selling novel a run for its money. Every scene is absolutely mesmerizing, even the terror-filled thrills of the storm scenes. It's truly breathtaking. Aside from the cinematography, moreover, the way Lee dealt with some of the challenges presented in the novel is nothing short of impressive. For example, a lot of readers find the novel's meerkat island strange - and so did And Lee. However, he uses it briefly and delicately. It feels hallucinogenic in Pi's near-death state, like an otherworldly paradise. It's still weird, but it works. 

Actor Suraj Sharma ensures a career ahead of him with his mind-blowing performance. He draws you in to the experience and, together with the 3-dimensional imagery, makes you feel as if you're on that boat with him. It's really much more of an experience than a movie, but a very enjoyable one. I wasn't bored for a second.

My only qualm is  the end. Whereas the ambiguous ending of the book allows the reader to decide for themselves what they want to believe, the movie doesn't present this opportunity in the same way. The addition of the writer causes this difference,  necessitating a closed interpretation. Nevertheless, it doesn't diminish the value of the experience detrimentally. The film is a work of art and nothing less.