Brilliant and Beautiful.

Rating: 10/10 (2 December 2012)

This movie is beautifully crafted by everyone involved in the film. The acting, directing, writing, and cinematography are all done incredibly well. All groups do a great job of building up the story from the beginning of the movie through the middle and finally hitting home at the end. The first 20-30 minutes where a little slow, but the small stories related to the audience by the main character, Pi, in the beginning of the movie start subtlety showing up later on in the movie. The movie delves into the duality of man and also explores different religious concepts. It is rich in philosophy and explores what everything all means.
***Spoilers***
As many people have already written, the movie ends with Pi asking the writer "Which do you prefer" and the writer responding "The one with the Tiger." I think different people will view this phrase in different ways. One previous reviewer mentions it is written "prefers" as opposed to "believe" because it shows that people adopt different belief systems based upon their own preferences; each religion having its own benefits and negatives. I viewed it in a completely different manner. I believe it was Pi's way of showing different religions/philosophies place in the world and rebutting all of his father's earlier assertions. It brought what happened in the beginning between his family and childhood and then in the middle on the boat full circle.
1. Pi's father was of the New India mindset and denounced Pi's adopting multiple religions, telling him in one scene to be rational and choose one; he is said to believe in Western Medicine after being cured of Polio and that people saved him, not God
2. Pi's father in another scene shows Pi that Richard Parker is but an animal, and that when you stare in an animal's eyes all you see is your own reflection
In Pi's story with the Tiger, he embraces aspects of many different religions and some allegories are as clear as day. In what is related as the real story, a singular, rational, line of reasoning is undertaken and understood. Pi asking which story is preferable is akin to Pi asking his father which world he would rather live in; one with people acting on impulse and reason or one with people acting on what they have learned with an open mind and understanding of different religion and philosophies. People can take lives (murder) as easily as they can save lives (cure Polio).
In Pi's story with the Tiger, he slowly trains the Tiger and shows the Tiger with some human qualities and tinkers with the idea that a predatory animal can have a soul. In the "real" story, Pi becomes animalistic (acting on instinct and feeling) and you are left thinking about the dual nature of man. Since the cook and Pi take certain actions to stay alive, does it mean they have any more of a soul than an animal that hunts and kills at will for food?
At the end, you don't know if either of the two stories is real. Pi tells the writer his story will make him believe in God and it doesn't have anything to do with what the negative reviewers wrote on here and elsewhere. It isn't about sugar-coating what actually did happen to cope with reality. You are lead to believe neither story is important when Pi's book he was writing in flies off into the wind. What is important is thinking about what type of world you would want to live in; one with everyone working in their own self-interest and acting, in dire straits, like animals, or a world with hope in which people look out for other people/animals.
Pi couldn't understand why God would send Jesus to die for mankind, just as we can't understand which of his stories were true and where, if they did, converge. Pi could understand that he had been delivered alive, just as we, hopefully, could understand which version of events is better.