Viewed in
2012
Formats
Movie theater (3D)
Premise
Based on the novel, a movie about a young Indian man who finds himself stranded in the Pacific on a rescue boat, with a tiger.
Loved
3D second act.
Disliked
Pointless opening, underwhelming payoff.
Thoughts
I liked it, but didn't love it. In fact I found it a tad overrated. And that's coming from a sucker for 3D.
As a 3D experience, it was incredibly involving. Not surprisingly, James Cameron's 3D production team was listed in the credits. Every shot was well-composed and enhanced the story-telling. I felt the claustrophobic intimacy of being trapped in a small boat with a predator, but I also felt the disheartening vastness of being alone in an ocean. My favorite moment was the school of flying fish crashing into the characters/boat/screen. Other fantastic scenes involved the tiger's reintroduction to the story and epic shots of sheer vastness of ocean.
Obviously, I remember the last time director Ang Lee forayed into big-budget, CGI-heavy territory, and that... was... interesting... This time around, it was way more enjoyable. Lee was able to get charming performances out of his cast, especially Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan, while harnessing visuals for an epic adventure that was not brainless. The middle section engrossed me with its harrowing tale of survival and determination, much like Castaway did.
However, the first and last act didn't work at all. Thanks to marketing, I was (metaphorically) looking at my watch at the beginning, waiting for all these non-3D-friendly interview scenes of an older main character to end. I never read the novel, so this made me wait for the shipwreck to happen as well as know that he survived. It was mildly entertaining with amusing tales of our hero as a kid, with his name and religious identities.
But when paired with the third act, it just fell apart. Suddenly I was distracted by wondering what was real/lies, as well as not really getting a huge revelation. I did not feel the connection between the religious themes of the first act, and the intense struggles in the second act. Whatever the message it was trying to say, it wasn't expressed clearly. The result was a start about god, but that got pushed aside for 3D shipwreck stuff, and a messy resolution to tie things up.
Despite my unhappiness with the bookends, the second act of Life of Pi was visually/emotionally fantastic enough to recommend. As a whole, it fell short as a "best of the best" candidate.
