Life of Pi - 2012 - 4 Stars

Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, C.G. "Eye" Tiger

SPOILERS BELOW

Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel's eponymous novel begins with the framing device of  Pi, the film's protagonist, as an adult telling his life story to a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall), early in the film Adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) tell Spall's character and by proxy the audience that his story will make them believe in God. This is a bold claim from the character, but an even bolder claim from director Ang Lee. It's such a brash proclamation that it that immediately heightened my contrarian instincts to the point that I wanted to not believe just to spite the director.

The bulk of the Khan's story is the harrowing tale of a shipwrecked Pi who must survive on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra and orangutan. The CGI animals are beautifully designed and while I generally dislike anthropomorphic animals, these animals are dangerous and instinctual, but still have agency as characters in the story. Lee's real coup during these sequences is to generate real suspense when Pi is in peril even though the film's framing device tells that audience that Pi survives this wreck.

The film takes a while to get going and at times the first act feels like a generic Disney fable, but once Pi gets on the raft, the film is suspenseful, engaging and beautiful*. Occasionally I broke Lee's spell by asking myself stupid nitpicky questions like "Why doesn't Pi kill the man eating Tiger with his flare gun and live off tiger meat for weeks?" The film opens with a brash declaration, but what follows is an thrilling, earnest, spiritual film that didn't convince me to believe in God, but opened me up to believe the film's true message; a message about the power of storytelling and mythology and why it has been present in all of human society.

*While the CG work is magnificent, Life of Pi, a film shot largely on green screen, winning the best cinematography Oscar is bullshit.