Up front I want to say, I think Ang Lee is an amazing director at times. There are also times when you wonder if the man has any idea what he is doing. His Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Eat Drink Man Woman, and one of my personal favorites Ride With the Devil are all phenomenal. His Incredible Hulk and The Ice Storm, not so much. In my opinion, Life of Pi fits squarely in-between those two extremes. If you want a movie that is a visual feast for the eyes then Life of Pi better be the next film you go to see. The 3D is so amazing it's sometimes hard to believe your eyes and you really can only tell one time throughout the film where the real Bengal tiger ends and where the CG tiger begins. Amazing!!! Sadly though, where the movie excels in visual goodies, it severely lacks in any real emotional depth. It doesn't build those emotional bridges I thought were necessary to make this film one for the ages.
Starring Suraj Sharma as the younger Piscine Molitor Patel, Pi for short, it's a movie based on his time at sea on a lifeboat with a ferocious Bengal tiger. It's a tale told to an author who has just scuttled his second novel played by Rafe Spall. He was told to go visit Pi by Pi's uncle if the author wanted to hear the greatest tale ever told and the author does. The author goes to visit adult Pi played by the very talented Irrfan Khan. Adult Pi told the author that through his story, he found God which is what the author is hoping to find himself. Adult Pi begins to tell the author where his name comes from, The Piscine Molitor Hotel's swimming pool that Pi's uncle absolutely loved. His uncle loved it so much that Pi's father chose to name his youngest son after said pool. That's when I started scratching my head.
The scratching went on when before the coming shipwreck, Pi seems to have no loving, profound moments with his mother, father, or brother. Younger Pi falls in love with a dancer but there's nothing about their romance at all except how adult Pi remembers how he never said goodbye. So when his family perishes in the shipwreck, there are no pulling at the heart strings at ALL! I wouldn't say I didn't care that they passed but I can't say that I was all that broken up about it either. What goes on in the lifeboat however is thrilling stuff thanks to a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, a drugged up hyena, and a even more drugged up tiger. Sadly though the movie descends into Cast Away mode. Think Tom Hanks on the open sea but instead of talking to a volleyball, he has a Bengal tiger to keep him company. And while out there on the open sea, Pi barely sheds a tear for his dead family and instead does all he can to keep the tiger alive. As you can guess, there was more scratching of the head going on.
Like I said, visually the movie was amazing and if it should be ignored come the movie award season, that would be a crime. I'm sure the movie looked breathtaking not in 3D but in 3D it was jaw dropping. Scored with heartbreaking fragility by the incredible Mychael Danna, the score is often the only thing that has any emotion during the movie. Now if I've made Pi out to sound like a movie not worth seeing, my apologies. You may see it and get a completely different feel from the movie that I did and you may actually find it at the very least redeeming if don't actually find God. If you see it, I hope you enjoy it more than I did...and I'll see you at the theater.
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