Life of Pi

I remember reading Life of Pi in grade 9 and being absolutely mesmerized by Yann Martel’s novel. The story starts of with the main character, Pi, saying that his story will "make you believe in God." I shared the vastly agreed on opinion that the book was “unfilm-able” when I heard it was being adapted to the screen. seeing the movie this past week—possibly making me the last person to do so taking into regard my hesitation of another “the movie didn’t do the book justice review” (i.e. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate events—sigh)—I was pleasantly surprised and utterly blown away.

Apart from the movie being a cinematic masterpiece and Ang Lee’s greatest work yet, and the main star of the movie only having gone to the audition in trade for a subway sandwich, the stunning story in the book is adapted so well that it carries the whole movie. Usually, IMAX movies have something lacking, and more often than not are terribly overdone so the audience doesn’t notice all the loopholes in the dialogue, storyline or casting (i.e. Snow White and the Huntsman). (The following is spoiler-ish.) Even after watching the amazing story of Pi’s survival at sea with Richard Parker (the tiger), the zebra, the orangutan and the most annoying hyena ever—who had me yelling at the screen. Of course, the main twist comes at the very end, where you reevaluate everything you've come to learn about the story and sympathize with Pi even more.

The main idea stemming from human sympathy, survival, grief, Pi’s sudden adolescence and that the choices we make and the inevitable realization that we have to live with them and grow. Here comes the kick. When Pi asks the man he's been telling the story to chose between the story of the humans (which includes human cannibalism) or the one with the animals, the man says he liked the one with the animals. The reality of the story is called into question, bringing in the idea of an agent of socialization. In which Pi's world is changed dramatically through an event or group, as well as includes audience (in both book and movie) in being included and choosing to believe which story they liked more. I, of course, along with the two Japanese officials, preferred the one with the Richard Parker (the tiger).

  

photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox.