2
hrs & 7 min, color, 2012
Familiar maxims that might
seem tiresome, if repeated often enough by people on the street or in living
rooms or byways of human commerce, can become sparkling and new again when
spoken in the context of a choice narrative.
In dramatic terms they can ring many more bells than they can in the
private precincts of moral instruction or conversation. “Faith is a house with many rooms.” And, as so many of us have discovered and
re-discovered, “All of life is letting go.”
Though few in western society have had the chance to meet up with
starvation, most of us most likely have heard some version of “Hunger can
change everything you thought you knew about yourself.” And we surely have been warned not “to tempt
fate,” an admonition that makes most sense when you are defiantly facing a
dangerous storm and dare yourself not to take cover.
Such are the familiar sayings
that pop up in “Life of Pi,” and we have a refreshing narrative to give them
new power, thanks to a novelist (Yann Martel) and an imaginative movie director
(Ang Lee) assisted by a sentient and perceptive screen writer (David Magee) and
a brilliant master of visual effects (Bill Westenhofer). I have not read the best-selling book, but I
can attest that what appears on the screen in this adaptation is a top flight
work of artistry in every department. It
unlocks the mind and heart and soul of a young gifted Indian boy in his teens
who sets out to find God and finds more than he could ever have imagined. The tragic misfortune of a shipwreck from
which he is the only survivor out of his four member family propels him on his
journey, with the most unlikely companion in travel.
Pi, short for a longer name
given him at birth, is played by a most gifted young actor named Suraj Sharma,
someone I found great pleasure in watching and hearing. He carries the film quite soulfully. Pi was born in a zoo (yes, a zoo!) that his
well-heeled father has owned, grows up among animals of many stripes and
demonstrates more than a little acumen at science and math, until economic
stress forces the family to sell the property and move from southern India to
Canada by way of a Japanese freighter, taking many of the animals with them
across the water. The storm that brings
on the deadly calamity drastically alters the fate of everyone involved, and Pi
ends up the only human in a lifeboat alongside a beautiful but extremely
dangerous Bengali tiger. Up until this
point he has believed that animals have souls.
“I’ve seen it in their eyes.” But
such a belief is about to be put to the most excruciating test. The tiger is one of Pi’s father’s caged
possessions whom the son has admired from a distance but who he quickly comes
to fear and match wits with to stay alive.
By the point of the shipwreck
Pi has already declared his belief in deity and is in the process of
familiarizing himself with the teachings of all the major faiths without
settling on any one. His father has
taught him that religion in any form involves darkness, the boy little knowing
how soon a hallowed darkness would be cast upon him. When he finds himself afloat with his animal
companion, his innocence succumbs to the bane of loneliness, desperation and
dire necessity. For a long spell the
universe ceases to be a colorful fascination, as it previously has been, and he
faces into a purgatory far more brutal than anything his Catholic education has
taught him.
One thing I greatly admire
about the movie is the way scenery and substance work so very well
together. There are so many notable
shifts and turns in the use of the camera and so much that must have had to be
computer generated with unfailing precision and so much activity on the part of
the ocean and the sky and the broiling water and the many species of animal.
There was a danger that the viewer could get caught up largely in the
techno-craft of the production and become distracted from Pi’s spiritual quest
and the part that the tiger plays in it.
But thanks to Suraj’s terrific acting and the ingenuity of the director
and writer this did not happen. The
picture is not a nature study or some yarn about the taming of a beast. The tiger by slow degrees becomes a life force
from which the boy learns intangible things as well as tactics for
cohabitation.
We know from the film’s
beginning that Pi does survive, because we meet him as an adult (Irrfan Khan)
many years later telling his tale to a young writer who is searching for story
material. The narrative is framed in
such a way that we anticipate learning how Pi the boy finalizes his
relationship with God and the universe and himself. Viewers who consider themselves on a
spiritual quest will probably be right at home with it. Finally in the closing minutes the film makes
an unexpected demand upon our imaginations.
It wraps itself in the gauze of a riddle that puts all that has been
depicted into a new perspective, one that honors the eternal duality between
darkness and light and myth and reality.
Not the least of the film’s
features is Michael Danna’s tender and serenely enchanting score. It retains its tenderness and its serenity
even through storms and tiger snarls and crashing waves and batteries of flying
fish and the fury of the deep. The most
musically enchanting sequence of all comes at the film’s very beginning during
the opening credits, as we are taken into Pi’s family’s menagerie. The creatures, some crawling, some flying,
some striding, some waddling, perform as if in a ballet, and yet all the
movement is perfectly natural, no animation.
Breathtaking in every respect!
One of the most animal friendly few minutes of film footage ever
created!
The movie won Oscars for
Lee’s direction and for Westenhofer’s special effects and was nominated for
Best Picture and for Magee’s screenplay.
A word of caution is in order
for parents. Stories on film about
children and animals have traditionally been regarded as whole family
entertainment, but in this case smaller kids might find it a bit scary and
upsetting. Not all the living creatures
portrayed win their fight for survival; nature can be cruel by human standards
and some of that cruelty is seen up close, though it is not depicted in a gross
or vulgar fashion. I do recommend it for
most children above the age of eleven, but it may be wise for parents to screen
it first and then decide on its suitability for their particular offspring.
I lay this gem at your feet
and wish you all an exciting adventure with it, though I doubt that my wishing
it is really necessary.
To read other entries in my
blog, please consult its website:
enspiritus.blogspot.com
I welcome feedback. Direct it to bobracine@verizon.net
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