Life of Pi movie overview

“A story that will make you believe in God,” is how one character describes the events that take place in “Life of Pi”, the latest film from Ang Lee (“Sense and Sensibility", “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Brokeback Mountain”).

Though religious epiphanies may vary from viewer to viewer, there is no denying that “Life of Pi” is a very, very beautiful film to look at. While the same could be said of any number of computer-imagery-assisted films these days, very few of them have, at their center, a compelling, emotional story being told by a master filmmaker.

Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Yann Martel, “Life of Pi” tells the story of Piscine “Pi” Patel, a young boy growing up in Pondicherry, India on the grounds of a public zoo that his father operates for the local government.

From the outset, Pi is shown to be a precocious, inquisitive boy, living an idyllic life until the day his father makes the announcement that the family is relocating to Canada. Now sixteen, Pi does not take the news well, but nevertheless complies with his father’s wishes.

The Patel family, consisting of Pi, his father, mother and older brother, say goodbye to their friends and family and board a cargo ship, taking with them all the animals from their zoo, which are to be sold in Canada. En route, the ship encounters a massive storm, forcing a too-late evacuation that results in Pi being the only survivor.

Well, the only human survivor, anyway. In a situation that sounds like the set-up for a joke (but plays as anything but), Pi ends up sharing a lifeboat with perhaps the worst travel companions ever assembled: a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Lost at sea, with only wild animals as his companions, the trials and tribulations Pi is forced to negotiate – with nothing but his wits – occupy the bulk of the film.

First time-actor Suraj Sharma portrays Pi throughout his ordeal, giving a remarkable, praise-worthy performance that runs the full gamut of human emotion while lending credibility to the tenacity, resourcefulness and MacGyver-like ingenuity his character employs to survive.

Visually, this is Lee’s most accomplished film. Working with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, the imagery on display – both in concept and execution – is of a level so seamlessly, sublimely, transcendent it is impossible not to be impressed. Where other films’ stories hit the brakes to make an event of their big reveals, “Pi” foregoes showiness, allowing its visuals to enhance the narrative, rather than the other way around. Many are the moments that you will be staring at something for several seconds before realizing the sheer majesty of what you’re witnessing.

As someone who finds very little to like about modern cinematic 3D presentations, it is with astonishment that I must admit awe and wholeheartedly advise that you see “Life of Pi” in 3D.

This is the 3D we were promised since the format’s inception, and its use here is astonishing.

In staging a story set mostly on water with only one human character for the majority of the running time and large-scale integration of motion capture and computer-generated trickery to realize Sharma’s four-legged co-stars, Lee has raised his already impressively-high bar to new heights. As one of the most versatile filmmakers working today, Lee possesses an almost chameleon-like ability to find the emotional core of his subject matter – regardless of genre – be it gay cowboys, flying martial artists, or a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.

The film is bookended by sequences of a grown-up Pi (Irrfan Khan) telling his tale to a writer (Rafe Spall) looking for a good story. While the journalist (and the audience) is left in perpetual ambiguity as to the veracity of the elder Pi’s recollections, one would be hard-pressed to argue that it isn’t a hell of a good yarn, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we go to the movies for?