Caught this one last week having heard about all of the hype, and also pretty excited about it because I like the book a lot too. I read the book a couple of years ago now so I couldn’t remember that much of the details but could remember most of what happened, and certainly was wondering how they were going to work on the big screen. Directed by Ang Lee, this film was always going to have a certain aesthetic to it that was going to be pleasing to the eye.

Life of Pi

Based on the novel by Yann Martel about a boy that is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with nothing more than a lifeboat and supplies on board and some zoo animals for company, this film is certainly something beautiful to watch. The tiger, Richard Parker is almost completely done in 3D but it would be hard to guess when it’s real and when it’s CGI because it is really well done. If you put aside the ridiculous story of survival and marvel at the imagination, the creativity, and vision of the story, and then the movie, it is definitely one of those really great stories and movies to watch. I really liked watching it, yes, there are hard to believe moments like a perfect reflection in a perfectly still ocean (but that was probably in the novel), everything in the movie looks just right, it all looks so vivid and if you are a fan of the book I don’t think you will be disappointed by the movie. I remember reading the book and trying to picture in my head the green island that killed fish to support itself and it’s thousands of meerkats, wondering what it might look like in real life, and it really did not disappoint seeing it on the big screen. So a great story with a great movie, great acting and great direction, this is a pretty disappointing review I know, I haven’t said anything bad or funny, just how great this movie is, go watch it. They said it couldn’t be done, but they did it, and it is very well done.

Oh, just thinking about it, and this is a bit of a spoiler, but I wish that when Pi was telling the “alternate story” they would have had the actors act out that part instead of just showing him in bed telling it, but then maybe it would have been too gruesome for the intended audience.

Picture taken from wikipedia. We didn’t watch the 3D version.