Life of Pi

Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee

Today I'm going to talk about this Academy Award winning film that has become a sort of phenomenon all around the world.

First of all, I have NOT read the book on which the film is based so I will make reference only to what I saw on screen. That being said, here I go.

I went to the cinema with no expectations whatsoever, which was a good thing, I guess.  The story is told as an interview, in which a young writer has a meeting with adult Pi, who has agreed to tell his amazing life changing story. The movie begins with about 20 minutes of what I thought was the most random pack of scenes ever on screen. I was bored as hell and the "drama" of it did nothing for me, at all. If you are not familiar with the story, Pi's family (owners of a Zoo) has to sell the zoo and move away, with the animals and all. Here's when the movie became interesting.

The family is travelling in a ship and in the middle of the night there is a terrible sea storm that sinks the vessel, Pi being the only survivor, joined by a tiger (and other animals, but the story focuses on the tiger). That's when I said, hey, that's cool, let's see what happens next! I have to admit that I did enjoy what came after that, all the emotions that coexist in that tiny space shared by a single boy and a tiger were amazingly reflected on screen, the evolution of the character was visible from beginning to end , and even the tiger changes thorough the whole adventure, which is also great.

Now, the trouble for me was  from the flying fish on, I didn't really buy all the "magic realism" that the film explored for the next 30 minutes or so, which unfortunately, if you add it to the first 20 minutes, there's way more that I did not enjoy than what I actually did.

I am not going to discuss the ending because it's one of those endings that can destroy the whole thing if you have not read/watched it. 

Overall, I did not enjoy the film as much as I would have wanted, but since I had no expectations, I guess it was just fine. Does it deserves its 4 Oscars? I'm not sure about all of them, but if you are wondering why The Hobbit, The Avengers, or Prometheus didn't win Best Special Effects, you should totally check this one out.

MadHatterSays: It was ok, give it a chance.

                               3.5/5