Movie Review - Life of Pi

Life of Pi (2012)

***viewed in 3D***

Starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, and Gérard Depardieu

Directed by Ang Lee

I knew very little about Life of Pi prior to going in.  I was aware that it was "faith-based" in the sense that spiritual beliefs would take a large role in the film, and I also knew that most of it took place on a small boat with a tiger.  Beyond that, I went into this pretty blind.  Perhaps this was one of the few times, however, that the lack of knowledge hurt things a little bit.  It's not that I couldn't comprehend what was going on -- in fact, this is one of the most "basic" movies I've seen in a long time in terms of plot -- but not being aware of the overarching story itself had me expecting something a bit more epic as opposed to more intimate and I was caught a bit off guard.  [I don't know why I felt this way.  It's a kid on a boat with a tiger...why was I expecting epicness?]

Eleven year-old Pi Patel (Ayush Tandon) is a curious kid growing up in India next to his parents' zoo.  While his father lacks religious beliefs, Pi ponders the various tenets of religions as diverse as Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam, recognizing the underlying similarities of them all.  As Pi grows into a teen (now played by Suraj Sharma), his father and mother announce that they must leave India for Canada for monetary reasons and they plan on taking the family and all their animals with them on a large ship.  While at sea, a terrible storm strikes and Pi finds himself seemingly the only survivor on a small lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger.  As Pi spends months stranded in the ocean, he must come to terms with humanity, faith, and fate as everything he believed in prior to the wreck comes into question.

First, I should say that Suraj Sharma who finds himself sharing the stage with digitally created animals for most of the film does a fairly remarkable job of holding his own and creating a presence onscreen that is strong enough to keep the audience's attention for nearly ninety minutes.  Considering that this is the young actor's first film role, kudos must be extended to him.

Secondly, director Ang Lee utilizes digital effects to create lifelike and, at the same time, fantastical sea settings that are quite visually appealing film despite the fact that the supposedly amazing 3D effects weren't all they were cracked up to be.  Lauded in the reviews likely due to a single scene in which Lee decides to "letterbox" his film and have fish fly outside of the letterboxing, this effect was already done in the flop G-Force to much greater effect.  Still, the 3D looks fine...it just isn't as fantastic as one was led to believe.  Beyond the 3D, though, Lee manages to keep the film moving at a decent pace lensing some lovely scenes to feast upon.

However, whenever the film is off the small boat with Pi and the tiger, Life of Pi falters pretty significantly.  There's a framing device utilized of an adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) telling his story to a man (Rafe Spall) who wants to write a book on his life.  Perhaps this is in the book as well, but jumping back to the adult Pi just stymies any dramatic flow the movie has thus far achieved.  Removing this altogether would have provided a more cohesive and magical film and ended things without a treacly sense of melodrama.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+