Life of Pi

On Sunday, I saw Life of Pi. First of all, I want to say how nervous I was about this movie. I read the book a few months ago and loved it. I was excited to see that they were coming out with a film adaptation, but started to get wary when I saw how it was being advertised. I felt like they were downplaying the gritty-ness of the situation, and that, being a PG movie, they were trying to appeal to a younger audience. I was worried that because the story has a young protagonist they were going to try to turn it into a kid's movie. There are some very harsh realities that Pi has to deal with, and I was worried that they were going to skim over them or omit them completely. I saw how they could have distilled a beautiful, unique, deep story about love, survival, and introspection into a cheesy movie about a boy and a tiger.

Oh, how I was wrong. I should have known better with a director like Ang Lee. He's proven himself to be a good adapter, and he followed very close to the story of the book. There is a very surprising twist at the end of the book that will make you rethink everything you just read. Luckily, they kept this in the movie. One of my favorite parts of the book is in the beginning when Pi explores different religions. They kept this in as well, and it really adds to the story of him stranded on the boat.

All in all, I thought it was a wonderful movie. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the 3D is actually very much worth seeing. I was blown away by the special effects. The scenes in which Pi is thrown around by the sea are completely lifelike and believable, and you really get the sense of the immensity of the ocean. In a way, the sea is another character in the story. I am still scratching my head at how they filmed Richard Parker, the tiger. Certainly some of it was an actual tiger, but there are scenes at the end of the movie in which he shows signs of being starved and generally roughed-up by the voyage which could not have been filmed with a real tiger. I applaud those able to blur the line between reality and computer-generated effects. I honestly could not tell where one ended and the other started. Suraj Sharma, the actor who played Pi, was perfect for the role and did an amazing job.

I hope this movie gets the recognition it deserves. I worry Lincoln, which was so highly anticipated but so utterly disappointing, will be getting a lot of Oscar nods. I don't think it deserves as much acclaim as Life of Pi does. I'm excited to see more Oscar-worthy movies coming out (Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, and maybe Django?).