Life of Pi Film Review

Life of Pi film review by Erik Redli

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

Life of Pi

Can you imagine the Slum Dog millionaire in a Hemingway like struggle with the antagonist nature in the beats of the eye of the tiger only few hours after being served dinner by Gerard Depardieu? Initially I was little bit sceptical about the movie with only two main characters. I am speaking about the well expected Life of Pi hanging around the cinemas in the West End. But I was wrong twofold.

Believe in director's skills

Pictured above: Life of Pi fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel. Photo by Erik Redli.

First, I underestimated the artistry of the film-makers that can turn a sheer act of literature into a blockbuster movie. Skilfully, they put the story about Pi’s encounter with three different religions into retrospect, narrated to a writer who would turn it into a book. The authenticity was boosted by the 3D effect; at some point I really thought that the debris from the sinking ship will hit me and bend my head in despair.

Many religions and many stories

Second, I forgot about the masterpiece of Ernest Hemingway starring the same two characters; an old man and his fight against the forces of the nature on the open Sea. Actually, the Life of Pi can be compared to several other books and movies. Born in India Pi grew up in the family of a zoo owner. Skinny Indian boy resembling the Shamal from Slum Dog built his relationship with mats and three religions – Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The story pointed out that it is the belief in something what matters, not the particular religion as the God works under different names. Eventually, the business of Pi’s father went down and he decided to move family and animals to Canada.

Struggle for survival

Photo by Erik Redli.

Next passage was on a ship that sunk in the middle of the Pacific. It was similar to the Titanic, but now the weather was hot and majority of passengers were animals. Pi was left on a life-boat with an orangutan, a hyena and a wounded zebra. He did not know that there was also a big Bengal tiger, until the beast sprung out from the boat’s cover and slaughtered the rest of the non-human crew. From that point everyone would expect that Pi will befriend the beast and together struggle against the odds of survival. However the tiger is a natural predator and the author did not run away to the happily ever after, but kept the story down to earth. Pi kept the tiger at bay in the boat while he took shelter on a makeshift raft. Aware of the fact that tiger must be fed regularly so that it won’t eat him, he learned how to catch the fish and many other survival skills.

A boy with his tiger

There is a parallel with even another story, the Tracy’s Tiger. In a short novel by William Saroyan the main character overcomes the shyness towards a girl thanks to the helps of an imaginary friend – a tiger. In the end Pi tells a different story which leaves in doubts whether the tiger was real, or just represented the inner force within the character. Apart from the artificial characters, the real acting is good, including Gerard Depardieu in a cameo appearance of the cook on the ship. However I do not give away further details of the story in order to give you an incentive to watch it.