Starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan

Directed by Ang Lee (Winner of the Oscar award for Best Director for this film)

Grade: A-

Life of Pi centers around a fairly simple question with complex answers. What matters more, the truth of a story or its merit? Especially if both stories convey the same devastation and heartbreak, but one adds moments of beauty and illumination and the proverbial triumph of the human spirit. This is dangerous territory because it’s so easy to cop out with ambiguity, but this movie never removes or shies away from the complexity and refuses to make things simpler even if it means denying us the traditionally satisfying resolutions we so often crave at the movies.

Suraj Sharma stars as Pi, the son of a zookeeper in India who, along with his family, relocates from India to Canada. On the voyage, though, something goes wrong. The ship sinks, and Pi is stranded alone out at sea. Well, he’s not really alone, there’s a full grown Bengal tiger in the lifeboat as well. A tiger in the boat and sharks consistently circling around the craft, neither is a very promising option. The story follows Pi along his journey out at sea and his desire to not just survive, but remain a good man. He seems resourceful enough, he could probably figure out a way to kill the tiger, named Richard Parker because of a clerical error, and in fact is even presented with a golden opportunity at one point but chooses to save the wild animal. Pi, who is a Hindu, Catholic, Muslim (“We get to feel guilty before hundreds of gods”), and raised by a father who values the secular world and rational thinking above the mystic. Giving into selfishness, even if it’s necessary for his survival is not an option. Throughout their time together they learn to tolerate each other. It’s not a Disney-esque friendship that blossoms, but rather a mutual respect, begrudging on Richard Parker’s part.

I didn’t see this Life of Pi in 3D as I’m not a particular fan, but nevertheless this was one of the best looking movies I’ve ever seen. The CGI, while not always completely believable, though I believe intentionally so, is far more satisfying and well executed than any summer blockbuster of the last year anyway. If you get nothing else from this movie, see it for the visuals, it’s very much worth your time.

My only real complaint about this movie is the book endings. While Irrfan Khan does a great job as the adult Pi recounting his story, in fact the haunted but contented look in his eyes is pretty spectacular, I was a bit bothered by the presence of the writer. First off, it feels a bit cliché, as it’s something that’s been used time and again. Second of all, and maybe I’m reaching a bit, why did the writer have to be white? This is a movie all about Indians, well mostly, and though they’re in Canada during the telling of the story, it feels a bit manipulative. It’s as if by making the writer white, it’s assuming most of the audience is white and that makes this story about people from India hanging out with wild animals while stranded at sea so much more exotic. I don’t really think it needs to be any more exotic, let the story speak for itself. Overall, a small complaint, I just don’t like when I feel like I’m being pandered to.

The ambiguous ending, often used as a cheap tactic to trick people into thinking the film’s smarter than it is, is actually perfect. If you think of Pi as a man of many faiths, all of which he holds to be true, then you can see that both of his stories contain the truth, because all stories (i.e. religions) contain truth, if not a universal one, then simple some truth
we need.

Buy this movie!
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