A
zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a tiger hop on a lifeboat with a Hindu, a
Muslim and a Christian. Sounds like a joke if you haven’t read the best-selling
novel, Life of Pi.
And five years ago, it would have also been a joke to film this story due
to technological limitations. Luckily, the movie version waited for CG to
become seamless enough to create a fully believable tiger, for 3D to become somewhat
gimmick-less…and for Director Ang Lee to oversee it all.
This is more than a retelling of the familiar survival story. Life of Pi, as told from the view of a
14 year old, examines the
resilience of the human spirit when faith is tested. Perhaps it should have
been called The Young Man and the Sea.
Simply
put: Lee serves up an amazing Pi. See it in 3-D, which hasn’t been
used this well since Avatar.
Award
potential: Count on nominations
for Best Picture, Director, Adapted
Screenplay, Cinematography, Visual Effects (front-runner) and more. Suraj
Sharma, the teenage Pi, will face tough competition in the Best Actor category — but don’t rule him out.
The ten
buck review: Worth ten bucks.