Life of Pi (2012)

• Year: 2012
• Released: 21 Nov 2012
• Country: United States, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Canada
• Adwords: Won 4 Oscars. 81 wins & 135 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Life_of_Pi
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/life-of-pi
• Available in: 3D, 720p, 1080p
• Language: English, Hindi, Japanese, French
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
• Runtime: 127 min
• Writer: Yann Martel, David Magee
• Director: Ang Lee
• Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain
• Keywords: loss of loved one, 1970s, survival, faith, sea,

	7.9/10
	79/100
	86% – Critics
	84% – Audience

Life of Pi Storyline

A writer, looking for a story idea, is visiting with South Asian-Canadian Pi Patel. They were brought together by Pi’s deceased father’s longtime friend Francis, who Pi calls Mamaji, who knew Pi’s family when they lived in Pondicherry, India, where the writer met Mamaji. Mamaji felt Pi telling the writer his story would be karmic as the writer was a Canadian in French India, and Pi an Indian man in French Canada. Pi proceeds to tell him his life story, which starts in Pondicherry as the son of zookeepers, the zoo property where he grew up: how he was given his full name of Piscine Molitor Patel largely on Mamaji’s suggestion which included Mamaji teaching him how to swim, why at age eleven he made a concerted and extraordinary effort to shorten his name to Pi, his concurrent belief in several religions as he was growing up which affected his relationships not only with humans but what he wanted it to be with the animals at the zoo, and his mid-teen burgeoning relationship with a dancer named Anandi just before his family decided to make the move to Canada. But the largest and most fascinating part of his story concerns how he ended up on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with the zoo’s Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and the progression of their time and understanding of each other during that close connection, Richard Parker to who he attributes his survival despite they being initial adversaries as a human and a wild carnivorous beast.

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Life of Pi Movie Reviews

Powerful storytelling and splendid performances presented in a brilliant 3D

With his latest movie, “Life of Pi”, Ang Lee further establishes himself as one of the greatest contemporary movie directors. Starting from his Taiwanese beginnings, and his highly enjoyable, family-harmonizing “Father Knows Best” trilogy (1992-1994), through his Academy Award winning works on gracefully choreographed, highly spiritualized Far East martial arts tour de force “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000, best foreign-language film) and on an uncommon yet nostalgic portrayal of the Old West in “Brokeback Mountain” (2005, best director), to his other titles like “Sense and Sensibility” (1995), “The Ice Storm” (1997), and “Lust, Caution” (2007), quality and Kubrick-like versatility shown in his movies offer continuous attraction for wide audience of his admirers.

Lee’s latest and, so far, easily, greatest movie, “Life of Pi” is based on a screenplay adapted from the acclaimed fictional adventure novel written by Canadian author Yann Martel.

Throughout his childhood, due to matching pronunciation of French word “piscine” (pool, swimming pool) and English word “pissing”, Piscine Molitor Patel, named that way after later abandoned Parisian swimming pool, so predictably suffers from being nicknamed “Pissing Patel”. In order to avoid it, once in high school he finally shortens his name to Pi Patel… Nowadays middle-aged Pi tells the story of his life to a visiting writer, apparently a book author Yan Martel’s alter ego, who is seeking for the literal inspiration. Retrospectively, Pi divides his childhood and adolescence into three segments. In the first segment he gives shorter account of his life until the age of 16, describing his interaction with his family and schoolmates, in particular his relationship with his father and a girlfriend, concentrating on his exploits of God and spirituality, meandering between multitude of religious practices… while in the last one he briefs about his testimonial given to officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport, investigating the reasons why the ship his family was relocating on from India to Canada sank. Most detailed, and therefore the longest, is recollection of his 227 days in a lifeboat, an extraordinary ordeal he went through after the ship has capsized and everybody else, crew and passengers, died…

…Well, everybody human, but not everybody living. Namely, a number of terrestrial animals from their discontinued family zoo, offered for sale and brought along with other family belongings, have survived, too. But, not for long, because, while confined in the most limited space as they were, surrounded by vastness of the ocean, the law of the “survival of the fittest” prevails, takes its tall, and pretty soon Pi finds himself in a company of a single one topping the food-chain, a Bengal tiger curiously named Richard Parker.

Not to reveal the story further, it is with greatest pleasure to inform that cinematic excellence has been achieved in several categories: in an engaging tale—whether allegory or depiction of realistic, believable events, filled with protagonist’s rarely matched curiosity, imagination and his often reasonably unanswered doubts, encouraging the same in viewers—of an uncommon character, indeed, brought to on-screen life by outstanding performances from two contributing leads, remarkably presented via ubiquitous, yet inconspicuous animation, exceptional, CGI aided visuals and superb usage of 3D photography, all along complemented with an uplifting score. All these assets work seamlessly together in unfolding an intense relationship between Pi and Richard Parker, complex yet basic, difficult yet simple, initially charged with Pi’s dreadful fear, swiftly shifting to respectful care, instantly boosting his never overbearing confidence and relentlessly improving his survival skills. Wholesome artistic experience reaches and maintains its pinnacle particularly in clever tactics and constructive survival techniques 16-year old Pi uses—amply benefiting from his instructive lifestyle of a zoo owner’s attentive son, certainly well acquainted with animal psychology—to suppress the fear and convincingly impose himself as an equal to the one of the most elaborate “killing machines” among mammals, desperately striving for his own survival, nevertheless, generously, for survival of his seemingly sufficiently tamed companion, but still, initially and ultimately, magnificent adversary, Richard Parker, as well.

“Life of Pi” is, certainly, one of the most impressive movies of 2012, year that has just come to a close.

Breathtaking cinema

When I heard that the film adaptation of LIFE OF PI was being released, I made sure to go and read the novel beforehand so I could compare it to the movie. I’m not a huge fan of Ang Lee and his overrated CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this. But I needn’t have worried; this is a great movie, a film that fully explores the splendour of cinema and on-screen storytelling, and a film that’s better than the book.

The early and, quite frankly, boring parts of the novel are summarised well so that the storytelling is always on the move. The focus is on the survival narrative, which is as it should be, and the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker is brought to vivid and moving life. Sure, there are the occasional mis-steps along the way, like an ill-advised and tacked-on romance, but for the most part they get it right. The CGI is wondrous, especially the animals and an eye-popping shipwreck, and the story is moving, tender in places and full of heart. I’m not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes in parts, and it’s all down to Richard Parker, who must go down as one of the great animal characters in cinema. A great example of filming the unfilmable.

What’s one more review?!

By the time I got to see this film, the Oscars were long past and there already were a ton of reviews for “Life of Pi”. On top of that, I have noticed that for big pictures which most everyone likes, I rarely have much to say. After all, I agree with the majority–“Life of Pi” is a very good film. So, my review will be brief.

THE reason to watch this film is pretty simple: You cannot say that the movie reminds you of anything you’ve ever seen before or since. Sure, you could try comparing “Life of Pi” to “Avatar”–but that is only because they both used gobs of CGI to create fantastic stories. But the story itself, is so original. In addition, the acting, direction and artistry of the movie is tops. While I would agree with the Oscar folks that “Argo” was a better film, it wasn’t by much. Well worth your time.