Life of Pi

Films that are epic in size are usually strewn with fine acting, amazing directing, are photographed with perfection and have seamless visual effects. Well, "Life of Pi' showcases this in spades.

Based on the best selling novel by Yann Martel, is a magical adventure story centering on Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma), the precocious son of zoo keeper, Santosh (Adil Hussain) and of his mother, Gita (Tabu). Dwellers in Pondicherry, India, the family decides to move to Canada, hitching a ride on a huge freighter, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean during a terrible storm on a 26-foot lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all fighting for survival.
This is all told as a flashback from an adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) to a writer (Rafe Spall) who is in need of a good story. This epic story is about one young man's life challenge which includes adventure, discovery, and self-redemption.

Others to round out the cast are Gerald Depardieu as the cook, Ayush Tandon as 11-12 yr. Pi Patel, Gautam Belur as 5 yr. Pi Patel, Vibish Sivakumar as 18-19 yr. Ravi Patel, Pi's brother, Mohd Abbas Kaleeli as 13-14 yr. Ravi Patel, Shravanthi Sainath as Anandi, Pi's girlfriend, Andrea Di Stefano as the priest, James Saito as older insurance investigator, and Jun Naito as younger insurance investigator.

This was extremely well directed by Ang Lee ("Pushing Hands" '92, "The Wedding Banquet" '93, "Eat Drink Man Woman" '94, "Sense and Sensibility" '95, "The Ice Storm" '97, "Ride with the Devil" '99, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" 2000, "Hulk" '03, "Brokeback Mountain" '05, "Lust, Caution" '07, "Taking Woodstock" '09) using passion as his typical trademark. This was written by David Magee based on Martel's novel.

Certainly one of the stars of this was cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, asc ("A Thousand Roads" '05, "Failure to Launch" '06, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" '08, "TRON: Legacy" '10). His ability to use lights and shadows in conjunction with filming reflections as though they were created visually was simply amazing, and will undoubtedly be nominated come Oscar time. The way this film is presented visually, it will give one the feeling that it was located in some surreal places. The visual effects, predominantly created by Rhythm & Hues Studios were seamless, but it was Miranda's photography which really shined.

If you're going to see this, you must see it on the large screen preferably in the 3D process, otherwise it will lose everything in the translation. As this story is being told, Lee and Magee wanted to take you on a pleasurable ride, and they succeeded.

Out of 4 stars: 4                     Rated: PG                     125mins.