Life of Pi

Life of Pi

A Review

Whenever I see a trailer with tag lines such as "When all you've ever known is lost", anything mentioning "courage" and "hope", looks to be fantastical, dreamy and hyper-real, plus shows all of the glamour shots in one hit, I trust that it will be a lame film.

Fortunately for me, my fiance pulled me into the theatre to see this. I went in not so keen, expecting that I would hear nothing but a Coldplay concert over a sappy, heart warming story of survival..

..but I am pleased to report that I was pleasantly surprised!

[spoilers!]

The film opens with an older Pi Patel (played by Irrfan Khan) telling an author about his life story, who thinks it would make a great book. The narration flows into flashback mode, telling of Pi's young life growing up in India (younger Pi played by Suraj Sharma), where his parents owned a zoo. When Pi is 16, his father brings news that he is going to sell the zoo and move the family to Canada to ensure a better future. On the way to Canada, the ship that Pi's family and zoo animals are on encounters an epic storm in the pacific, ultimately sinking the ship and everyone on board. Pi manages to escape on a life raft, and so his story of survival begins.

One of the things I love about Life of Pi is that it gives a very decent introduction. I haven't read the novel that this is based on, but the film feels very "novel-like" in the way that the characters are set up. The introduction shows details of Pi's upbringing and his life experiences that influence his religious beliefs. I'm so glad that the movie didn't make the mistake of giving a brief setup, leaving the rest of the time for "survival mode". The time left for the survival story after the setup is very appropriate and fitting, and no fidgeting was experienced as I had dreaded!

The film makes great use of 3D. You'll see the frame size of the film changing to include black bars top and bottom of the film so that flying fish can literally leap out of the frame, you get prodded in the eye by Pi's "tiger training pole", and just a lot of little things (and big things, especially the ship sinking!). And after watching The Hobbit in 48fps 3D, I can only wonder what the high frame rate would have looked like in this movie - maybe it would have been put to better use here than in The Hobbit.

Life of Pi is full of absolutely stunning visuals, like nothing you could imagine. The animal CGI is very convincing, almost spot on. There are times throughout the film where you really can't distinguish if the animals you're seeing are real or not, a very special predicament to find yourself in when watching cinema.

Another aspect of this film that I love is the use of a very lonely score when Pi is at sea. Often at times the scene will cut to a shot of Pi in the lifeboat from far away, accompanied by a series of eventual dongs and bongs, accentuating how lonely he is at sea, without a soul but his own.

What I thought would be an uplifting story of courage, hope and survival (and while it still delivered on these), turned out to be a very gritty and disturbing film once you know how it ends. Like, when you actually substitute in your mind what is given away at the ending with what has happened in the film, you realise that what Pi went through on the water was truly horrific.

I'm very hesitant in giving away the ending, because it was a bit of a shock for me not having read the book or researched the film before seeing it, but it would be very hard to convey my feelings on this.. So I'll say it again, serious SPOILERS! Basically, there are two versions of the same story told. One story is what the film bases itself on. The uplifting story of a boy lost at sea, trapped on a boat with a variety of exotic animals, one by one killed off for the sake of animal survival, leaving just Pi and the tiger to develop a relationship. The other version of the story is what happened in real life, the story that Pi told everyone when he is saved. The ship sunk, he escaped on a lifeboat not with animals, but with his own mother, a sailor with a broken leg and the ship's cook, who killed the sailor and Pi's mother to eat and use as bait. The tiger represents Pi's own self, and the time spent on the water with nobody to be afraid of but himself. It is a story of real human brutality.

Parents, stay calm. The movie handles this in a particular way, and for good reason. The entire film bases itself on telling the amazing, dreamy story with the exotic animals. Then at the end, instead of telling the real story in a visual medium as with the rest of the movie, it is simply Pi recounting and telling the story by word of mouth, with the camera view slowly creeping up onto Pi's face as he tells the truth - "boring dialogue" that your kids won't bother listening to or even piecing together like I have above.

One beef with this film is the "island scene". Pi wakes one day to find his lifeboat washed up at a mysterious island full of meercats. He stays the night, only to realise that the island was "carnivorous" and devoured everything on it. So the next day, Pi sets sail again. Then CUT, next scene, he's washed up at the Mexican coastline where he is discovered and taken to safety. 

I really do not get the significance of this scene. Why include it, besides to show a million land animals as opposed to a million fish? Then having immediately been discovered by Mexicans and put in safety the very next scene? Why have nothing in between these two scenes? Why even include the "island scene"? It felt rushed and unnecessary.


Life of Pi has fallen into a million critic's "Top 10" lists for 2012, and I understand why. I laughed, I cried, a quality performance by newcomer Suraj Sharma, plus awesome, just awesome visual effects - it's simply great film making. Life of Pi is currently up for three Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director.

While I agree that this film should be nominated for these awards, I don't believe it should win. Despite every praise I've given Life of Pi, I feel it tries too hard. People will obviously love it, and has knowingly made itself the obvious choice for Best Picture and Best Director.

Summing up, Life of Pi is a very entertaining film, one that I found myself so surprised to have liked. I recommend you go see it, and I hope you have the same reaction as me: "I am SO glad it wasn't lame!"