Review of Life of Pi (2012) by Sherry L — 16 Dec 2013

For you who haven't seen this yet; here's a short summary of the plot:

After being suggested by a stranger on a café, a Canadian writer meets up with a man from India, named Pi Patel. And Pi Patel gives the writer his conscent to write a book about Pi's life. After being brought up in a family who owns a zoo, his father one day decides it's time to travel abroad and sell all the animal there.

But a vicious storm makes the ship sink, and the only survivor in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean is finally Pi, and a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Though the tiger obviously is a deadly threat to Pi, it somehow keeps him company, and occupied and strengthen his own instinct to survive.

I had to watch this movie more than once to realize that it was not just an "eye-charmer".

Ang Lee succeded with what seemed to be impossible; to make a worthy adaptation of Yann Martel's novel, with the same name.

I cannot say it resembles any movie I've seen before. The movie is so chock-a-block with pearls of wisedom, it's sometimes gets too much to take in. But despite that, it's a fantastic movie, in it's true meaning and I recommend this movie to anyone.

To be frank, at first I regarded this movie as a bit cheesy tale of faith (in any God that you prefer), with many bizarre scenes and a couple of scenes with black ironic humour (like when the Zebra jumps into the lifeboat, resulting the french cook falling out).

But really now I see this as a great adventure movie, and the second time I watched it I actually payed attention to that the main character tells the Canadian author, after having told he had to tell the authorities a completely different story, it's up to you to believe which story is true. And then he asks the Canadian writer in the most enigmatic way; which version he prefers to adapt in his book. And he answers the first one, with the tiger of course.