Ang Lee Does A Good Job Of Adapting What Must Have Been A Difficult Novel To Adapt

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2013)

Having read and enjoyed the book, I approached this movie very cautiously, wondering how ti could possibly live up to the novel on which it's based. In truth, it didn't. Rarely does a movie based on a novel manage to do that. However, while it doesn't meet the standard of the novel, I have to give credit to Ang Lee and others who were involved in the production. "Life of Pi" (the novel) would have been a very difficult novel to adapt for the screen for a whole variety of reasons - but I think Lee and others did a commendable job of bringing the basic story to life.
The film starts out relatively slowly, with an exploration of Pi's upbringing. Named "Piscine Molitor Patel" after a swimming pool in France, Piscine adopts the shortened form of "Pi." He's raised in India, spends much of his time observing the animals at the zoo owned by his family and embarks on a spiritual quest, raised as a Hindu, but also adopting Islam and Christianity, because he simply wants to love God. Then, his father decides to move to Canada, and while on the way the ship they're travelling on sinks and Pi finds himself the only human survivor, adrift on a lifeboat with only a tiger named Richard Parker for companionship.
The shipwreck and the voyage in the lifeboat is wonderfully portrayed, if a little bit (to say the least) unrealistic. Of course, when I say that I'm falling into the trap of the Japanese ship owners, who also can't accept that Pi's story can be real. This, of course, is the spiritual crux of the story: what, exactly, is reality? Are some stories too good to be true? Are some stories so good that they can only have come from God? It's an interesting spiritual exploration - not at all heavy handed, but often front and centre.
The ocean voyage is basically a one man show, carried effectively by Suraj Sharma as Pi. The other characters, of course, are the animals in the lifeboat: Richard Parker the tiger, a zebra, a hyena and an orangutan. The animals are animated, but incredibly realistic. The older Pi, who tells the story, is played by Irffan Khan, whose soft-spoken portrayal captures the essence of the character.
It's a commendable adaptation of the novel. The opening scenes in India left me a bit dry to be honest, but the very powerful portrayal of the ocean voyage drew me back in completely. Overall, a pretty decent adaptation of the novel. (7/10)