Life of PI - The Tiger Within

We sometimes decry that we want movies that make us think, that make us feel something - then we're met with that movie which does both and it can be an unsettling experience. But then again, so is life. Life of Pi is just such a movie and we cannot go into why it unsettled us without giving away too much of the plot. What we can tell you is that Life of Pi while an imperfect story in some ways is an undeniably powerful one. The main character - Pi Patel - is really three people (as we follow him at different points in his life) and each of his incarnations are different. Of the three versions of the one man, it is the stranded Pi in the boat who we come to know best - or so we think.

A strange journey with stranger companions

Director Ang Lee is known for creating films with sweeping visual splendor (including our personal favorites Ride with the Devil and the 2003 version of the Hulk). In Life of Pi he doesn't disappoint, first taking us (in 3D) from a quaint Indian town to the middle of the Pacific. The scenes of the ocean at night with its myriad of creatures bathed in luminescence are a wonder to behold. As you might have gathered, most of the film centers around the tale of Pi lost at sea - and lost in other ways as well. It is a long, perilous journey not just across an ocean but the human soul as well. 

Life of Pi was based on a novel by Yann Martel; the following clip is an audio excerpt of that novel:

One of the most visually stunning films in years

Life of Pi is a story we won't likely ever forget, even if we didn't expect or like the ending. Perhaps it's because of that ending, we'll never forget it. This movie has premiered as a classic; while it may not be the best movie of the year, it is in the top 3. We went to see Spielberg's Lincoln last week hoping to experience a profound movie epic - we finally got to see an epic today - it was a story about a boy and tiger lost at sea.

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