Life of Pi

Film review by Tom Hunt

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Life of Pi

Life of Pi, from the trailers didn't seem like the sort of film that would capture me. Ang Lee is a terrific director with many enjoyable films but this didn't seem like one of them. How wrong I was.

MAJOR SPOILERS TO COME

Life of Pi film poster.

It's a fantasy, it's a drama and it has tiny moments of warm comedy too. Life of Pi follows the story of Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) telling a writer (Rafe Spall) a story that will make him believe in god; the story of how he survived a shipwreck. It's a story that is quite unbelievable and Pi wishes to tell his story in full, of him as a child and how he came to be the young boy he was before he was involved in the shipwreck. After getting on a lifeboat the teenage Pi (Suraj Sharma) has to deal with surviving with an adult Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. He has to train it, and feed it to make sure it doesn't kill him as he tries to get to safety.

During his time lost at sea Pi goes through many stages of faith, believing one of his gods will save him, to doubting his faith completely. After telling his story in full the writer is unsure what to believe.

Then Pi reveals there is a second story that he had to tell the Japanese investigators who too deemed his story a bit too unrealistic and wanted something 'real' for the report. We see teenage Pi lying in the hospital bed telling his second story, one of great shock and sadness. How the animals were all representations of the people he was on the life boat with, and how it all went very barbaric and 'Lord of the Flies' like. The Japanese investigators, as well as the writer are both shocked and still unsure of what to believe.

Which story is real?

Which story is real? As Pi states. Both stories are centred around great tragedy, both stories end with him losing his family, and both stories end with him getting home, so which do you prefer? They are at a parallel with each other until the point of the animals come into it. Pi never reveals to the writer which one is the true version. We're asked, just like the Japanese investigators and just like the writer to which one we prefer and believe. The Japanese investigators, just like the writer decides that the extraordinary story with Richard Parker the Bengal tiger is the better story, “and so it goes with god” replies Pi to the writer. Possibly the best line in the film because of what it could mean. This film isn't a religious affair, it's not trying to say that god is or isn't real. The idea of god is to have faith in something quite extraordinary, something that cannot simply be explained and something you've got to take a leap of faith with. The writer (and Japanese investigator) chooses to have faith in the miracle story, rather than the story that is easily explained. Ultimately that's what it comes down to, do you like the things that make sense in the world, or are you open to a little faith.

It was the sort of film that left you enthralled in the fantasy. That keeps you thinking for so long afterwards and the sort of film you sort of wish never had to end. The visuals were of course wonderful but I felt the score could have been better. This was a film that was begging to capture its audience through its music, and it just didn't, but that is just a minor point and criticism for a film that was otherwise simply beautiful in every sense of the word.

Life of Pi somehow managed to make you feel warm and heartbroken at the same time. It's a wonderfully told story with an ending open to interpretation, but not in an annoying way, in the sort of way you'll have friends debating for hours in a coffee shop. That's the kind of story that's done its job right.