Life of Pi Review

Ang Lee has established himself as a highly visionary and also diverse director with many differing genres of film to his name. Three years since his last film, Lee returns to the big screen with ‘’Life of Pi’’ another visually stunning journey, this time across the pacific with a young boy and his tiger.

Adapted from the novel of the same name ‘’Life of Pi’’ follows the titular character on a journey of discovery. Having grown up a troubled soul with conflicting beliefs and morals, Pi’s family live in India, the owners of a local zoo who at the start of the film, plan to migrate to America mainly due to his father’s wishes. Disaster strikes when the ship sinks in a catastrophic storm in the Pacific Ocean, leaving Pi the only survivor in a single lifeboat. This serves as the main plotline that begins in earnest after a well-developed plot setup that follows both the family living in India when Pi is a young boy and the adult Pi as he relays his story to an American writer, which in their execution engages audiences in the tale before it even begins. Numerous themes populate this story including religion and nature of God, wildlife and humanity which are all tightly intertwined at both the beginning and end of the flick to raise many questions and convey a powerful message overall. Does God exist? Where does his power lie? Is it possible for multiple religions to agree and coexist in one’s mind? These are just some of the questions you may ask after seeing the movie. Regretfully some of these key themes do take a back seat after Pi’s escape from the freighter where the movie becomes primarily focused on Pi’s survival at sea.

Thankfully this main focus is headed by a strong and lovingly crafted bond between Pi and the tiger Richard Parker. Having been taught that animals are not his friends beforehand, Pi is initially afraid of the seemingly menacing predator but he soon tames it through stretched personal training and eventually befriends the loyal and strong beast, realising that the tiger is only and closest companion in an endless stretching ocean. Suraj Sharma puts in a great performance as Pi, bringing in heaps of emotion and portraying the boy who finds himself in an impossible situation. The supporting cast carries out its task effectively though personally I would have wanted to see much more of Pi’s family before the disaster so that their tragic deaths would have more lasting emotional impact and resonance. 

Given the director’s previous works, ‘’Life of Pi’’ is able to sit alongside the likes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as the perhaps the most visually stunning movie of 2012. Time after time Lee strikes awe into his audiences wherever he chooses to transport us next and this holds true for ‘’Life of Pi’’. Raging storms and other detailed weather effects brilliantly put across Pi’s struggle to survive and the destructive power of nature. These tense moments are matched with a calm and contained score that compliments the film’s scenes of beautiful vistas very well. 3D works superbly in ‘’Life in Pi’’ though regretfully only for the duration of Pi’s voyage across the film’s two hour length; dazzling light shows including a beautiful and majestic whale and a gorgeous looking sunrise to name a few, all of which truly and deeply immerse you in the film’s setting. Most other parts of the film, particularly those set in the normal world lack the depth you’d expect from the director known for creating visually spectacular movies.

‘’Life of Pi’’ is a good and often breath-taking journey across the pacific ocean, laced together with a powerful bond between Pi and the Bengal tiger who shares the lifeboat with him. It may not be the best movie to portray a lone survivor, nor has it claimed Avatar’s crown as the best user of 3D but this is still one adventure worth taking.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars