The Uplifting "Life of Pi"

M. Night Shyalamalan almost directed "Life of Pi," the new film based on the 2001 novel by Yann Martel. However, he bowed out due to creative differences, and the project was passed to Alfonso Cuarón, and then to Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and finally to Ang Lee. The challenging material that attracted so many top tier directors simply proved too daunting for most of them, and it seems like a minor miracle that the film was made at all, and with the backing of a major studio no less.

"Life of Pi" charts the life and adventures of Piscine Molitor Patel, called Pi (Suraj Sharma). His family runs a zoo in Pondicherry, but decides to emigrate to Canada when Pi is a teenager. They buy passage aboard a freighter and bring the animals from the zoo with them. Only a few days into their journey, disaster strikes. The ship goes down in a violent storm, and Pi is left stranded in the middle of the ocean on a lifeboat with a few of the surviving animals, including a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The tale is told in flashback by the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan), living in Canada, to an unnamed writer (Rafe Spall), who was promised that the story would make him "believe in God."

Religion is a major component of "Life of Pi," particularly in the early scenes where Pi is a curious child, trying out different faiths. The film is neither didactic nor dogmatic, and promotes no specific religion. Instead, it addresses question of faith in an open and thoughtful manner, leaving the interpretation of certain events up to the individual viewer. "Life of Pi" is primarily meant to be spectacle and entertainment, so it remains fairly light on substance until the final act, when it reveals itself as an allegory for something a little deeper – but not too deep. It can be viewed purely as an adventure story about a young man braving unimaginable peril and overcoming incredible odds.

The film's biggest selling point is its visuals, which are absolutely gorgeous, featuring impossibly lovely panoramas of the ocean and marine life that must have been digitally altered, or perhaps created out of thin air, but it's hard to say what's digital and what isn't. The storm sequences in particular have a more visceral impact than we usually see in similar films. It's been widely reported that the tiger was often an entirely CGI creation, and never on the boat with a human actor. As for Suraj Sharma, he's a newcomer to acting and "Life of Pi" is his first film. Despite this, we see a believable relationship between the two characters unfold onscreen.

I expected the filmmakers would have to make some alterations to the original story in order to shorten the amount of time that Pi and Richard Parker spend drifting around in the Pacific Ocean. However, the battles between them are so well rendered, I would have been happy to see them drifting around for a good while longer. There are some nice set pieces to break up the longer stretches on the ocean though, including encounters with fluorescent jellyfish and a swarm of flying fish. There's also a hallucinatory sequence that takes the audience from the ocean surface to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Sharma was a wonderful find, giving an unselfconscious performance that carries most of the film. The part is intensely physical, as we see Pi subjected to the elements, fighting with various creatures, and struggling for survival over an extended period of time. However, his best scene is one of his last, where he simply sits and talks to the camera, telling a story in the oldest way. Similarly, Irrfan Khan brings a quiet intelligence to the older Pi, who is a more practiced storyteller with a good sense of humor.

Much of the heavy lifting is left to the director, however, and Ang Lee does not disappoint. His last effects-heavy film was the 2003 "Hulk," not his best work. In "Life of Pi" he's far more assured, the images simpler but bolder and more vibrant. He surely drew inspiration from the Indian settings in the first section of the film, particularly the rich color palette. Creating some of the more fantastic visuals must have been a massive technical challenge, but it all looks effortless on the screen.

I wish "Life of Pi" could have delved a little deeper into Pi's religious questions, because the treatment of faith and spirituality in the film feels awfully safe. Several of the darker episodes in Pi's journey have been omitted, or are referred to so obliquely that they're easy to miss. However, the film is a reasonably faithful adaptation of Martel's novel, especially when you consider that the author once called it unfilmable. Apparently, all it needed was the right director.
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