Life of Pi (PG)

        An epic story of unlikely survival at sea, Life of Pi blew me away with breathtaking cinematography and  an intense script. Based on the novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi paints not only a picture of a boy's will to survive but also of a young man learning who he is. Director Ang Lee gives us a stunningly moving piece of work that you will want to watch over and over again.
        Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) is a spiritual boy living on his family's zoo in Ponticherry, India. He has just met the girl of his dreams when his father (Adil Hussain) tells him that he plans to sell his zoo and move to Canada. Crushed, Pi, his family, and the zoo animals (to be sold in North America) board a Japanese freighter headed to Canada. Halfway through their voyage, the ship hits a vicious storm leaving Pi adrift on a life boat with a zebra, a hyena, a orangutan named Orange Juice, and a magnificent Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Slowly the zebra, hyena, and the orangutan die until only only Pi and Richard Parker are left on the life boat. What happens next is a endearing tale of survival and unlikely friendship between man and beast.

Pi approaches Richard Parker while at sea

        I was very impressed with Suraj Sharma as young Pi. Most of his scenes were spent alone with a CGI tiger on a lifeboat. As such, Sharma didn't have many other actors to play off. Even so, Sharma gave a stunning performance as Pi. He made the character believable and, more importantly, someone you grow to care about. As Pi faces terrible odds surviving terrible odds adrift on the Pacific Ocean, Sharma shows us how a boy of that age really would react to difficult scenarios. All in all, an excellent performance.
         One cannot discuss Life of Pi without speaking of its amazing cinematography. Cinematographer Claudio Miranda made sure that the life boat that was Pi and Richard Parker's home for several months was not only realistic but also seemed like it was being tossed about on the ocean. This cinematography was so excellent that in some places my breath was taken away. For example, in one scene Pi and Richard Parker's lifeboat is becalmed at sunset. The Pacific waters act like a mirror reflecting the orange-yellow sky and clouds, a breathtaking vista.
         Of course, Life of Pi's special effects were just as awesome as its cinematography. For course the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker was entirely CGI. Also many of the amazing things that happened to Pi as he was at sea would not have been possible without the visual effects prowess of Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, and Donald Elliot. One of the best displays of these wonderful visual effects is when a humpback whale erupts from the ocean amid luminescent jellyfish. If I hadn't known better I would have thought that the whale was real. Another breathtaking visual effects experience was the thousands of meerkats on an island that Pi ran aground on.
          Life of Pi won four Academy Awards, all of which were certainly well-deserved. Director Ang Lee won Best Director, his second Academy Award. Claudio Miranda won Best Cinematography while the team of Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, and Donald Elliot won Best Visual Effects. Life of Pi also won Best Original Score which was written by Mychael Danna. This film was also nominated for Best Picture but was beaten by Argo. I truly enjoyed Life of Pi and would rate it a 4.5 out of 5. Thank you for reading!


Picture Courtesy Of: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/18/arts/18LIFE1_SPAN/18LIFE1-articleLarge.jpg