Once in a while, a wondrous, fantastical, magical and uplifting movie comes along that illustrates the power of the human spirit: 'The Shawshank Redemption,' 'Forrest Gump,' 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' and 'The Green Mile,' just to name a few. Acclaimed Taiwanese director Ang Lee's adaptation of Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi' is such a movie. Not having read the book, I came into the movie with a blank slate and open mind, and I came away enraptured, awed and impressed by the movie's beauty and sheer storytelling power.
'Life of Pi' is a movie about a sixteen year old Indian boy whose family was lost in a shipwreck and had to survive for 227 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean (thanks Wikipedia!). His only companion for most of his time at sea is a ferocious big cat named Richard Parker who wanted to eat him. What kind of story is this anyway, you ask? Well, you have to see it to believe it, and do go see it in 3D will you, because the cinematography is achingly beautiful.
What you take away from 'Life of Pi,' like the protagonist himself, is really up to you. It is a spiritual journey of self discovery, and the fact that Pi was once a Hindu, Christian, and Muslim at the same time tells us that faith, universal and enduring, is an uniquely human trait that comes from within our hearts, regardless of its form. The fantastical storytelling hints at an allegorical narrative, and in the end (for those of you who haven't read the novel) Pi does tell us a different version of the tale and gives us a choice to believe either one. And for the record, I too prefer the more fantastical.
Grade: A
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