Directed by Ang Lee
Screenplay by David Magee
Based on the novel by Yann Martel
Currently #182 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb as of this posting.
Stars: Suraj Sharma, Iffran Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu, Rafe Spall and Gérard Depardieu
When I heard that Life of Pi was coming out, I was excited. I was goign to see it when it opened Thanksgiving weekend, but then I put it off until I heard some rumbling about the themes of the movie. It really made me stay away from the movie. Seeing as the movie was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, I had to see the movie. It is a beautiful but the message was lost in translation.
As the trailers of the movie suggests that Pi (Khan) lived through his ordeal to tell the tale. A writer (Spall) comes into his home to ask Pi about his harrowing journey being lost at sea and that he would convince him that God exists with his story. Pi recounts his days in India that his family ran a zoo for many years until they could not afford to keep it up. Pi's father (Hussain) decides to ship the family and the animals on a Japanese ship to Canada. On the way to Canada, the ship sinks only leaving Pi as the sole human survivor with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker to survive in the middle of Pacific Ocean.
People keep saying that the movie was making you believe that God exists and all that. Do I believe in the Holy Trinity? Yes, I do. I am not into organized religion. Pi is looking for God in Hinduism, Christianity and Muslim religions. I am person that is very spiritual in my beliefs. I think that religion is constricting and hyporcitcal. I will not fault people that have a strong religious belief. Good on you.
In the beginning of the movie, it felt like the movie was cramming God down my throat. It was hammering in the message of God in every conversation that was taking place between Pi and the priest, Pi and his father and Pi to himself. We get it already.
The movie was wanted to tell this harrowing story of survival beyond insurmountable odds, but I felt the movie lost that emotional core. Everyone knew that Pi was going to survive. There was no tension or danger that Pi's life will be threatened. The movie failed in that aspect. The ending of the movie was a headscratcher. I cannot spoil it, but it left me confused.
I did not see this movie in 3D, but I have to say the visual effects and the cinematography were truly spectacular. It was visual feast for the eyes. Like some movies I saw in 2012, it was all style and no substance.
My Rating
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