adminserves teenage Pi (played impressively by Suraj Sharma) well after — spoiler alert — he loses his whole family when their ship sinks during a terrible storm and he finds himself adrift on a lifeboat with four zoo animals: a wounded zebra, an aggressive hyena, a friendly orangutan, and the large, unpredictable tiger known as Richard Parker.
Eventually just Pi and Richard Parker remain, and together they must figure out how to stay alive on the open ocean. A runaway bestseller when it was published in 2001, Yann Martel’s novel “Life of Pi” was long considered by many to be unfilmable.
After all, one of the two main characters is a tiger, who spends much of the story in close quarters with a teenage human. But director Ang Lee, who is nothing if not unpredictable himself, has proven any remaining naysayers wrong in spades. “Life of Pi” is a beautiful, emotionally resonant tale of faith, friendship, and perseverance.It looks absolutely gorgeous — like James Cameron did in “Avatar”, Lee uses 3D to make the world of “Life of Pi “an immersive, almost tactile place, from the humming birds that flit toward your face to the enormous waves that bear down on you during the intense storm sequences. The CGI is equally impressive; while intellectually you know that it would be next to impossible to get a tiger to do the things that Richard Parker does, there are moments when his fur ripples so realistically that you’d swear he’s 100 percent real.
While some of the story’s twists and themes will probably have more impact on those who haven’t read the book, there’s no denying that Life of Pi is a powerful movie that’s just as likely to make you think as it is to make you shed a tear or cheer in triumph.
Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” was long considered an unfilmable novel — and not without good reason. In the film version, the story revolves around a burned-out writer (Rafe Spall) who, in his travels, gets wind of a remarkable story about a man once shipwrecked at sea.
The writer approaches the man, Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan), who promises to tell him a story that will not only awe him, but also make him believe in God. We are then treated to a story starting in Pi’s younger years, focusing on his curiosity about (and eventual acceptance of) multiple religions — a practice which only exacerbates his pragmatic-minded father.
Life takes a hard turn when Pi, as a young man (played by newcomer Suraj Sharma), is on a freighter with his family bound for America to sell their collection of zoo animals.
When a freak storm sinks the ship, Pi escapes on a lifeboat with a small band of animal survivors in tow — including the fearsome tiger, “Richard Parker.” From there, the young man of many faiths must endure a trial of survival alongside his animal companions, learning many things about God and faith along the way.
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