'So, which story do you prefer?', asks Pi Patel.

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2013)

"Life of Pi" is one of those stories that get you thinking and people talking about "what does it all mean?" The line, near the end, where adult Pi asks the writer, "Which story do you prefer?" is telling, because he doesn't say "Which story do you believe?" This is not a story with one definite answer of what really happened on the boat, at sea for most of a year. The author of the source book doesn't even take a stand, he wrote it to be a modern day fable, a well-told yarn.
I find the movie best enjoyed just by watching it and enjoying the story, and the beautiful cinematography without worrying too much about deeper meanings. It is a story about young Pi (short for Piscine) Patel who has a personal exploration with spiritual matters, and when he finds himself at sea in a lifeboat, with an adult Bengal Tiger, he uses his faith, his belief in God, to carry him through and trust in ultimate survival. And it doesn't matter if any individual viewer believes in God, only that young Pi does.
Suraj Sharma is teenager Pi Patel in the 1970s, his family is forced to sell their zoo animals, all are on board a Japanese freight ship when, in a mighty storm the ship sinks, and the next morning Pi finds himself sharing the boat with an injured Zebra, a Hyea, and after a while, hiding under the tarp, Richard Parker, the adult Bengal Tiger. Eventually only Pi and Richard are left on the boat, and much of the movie is their saga of survival before eventually landing on the beach of Mexico.
The movie starts and ends in modern times, with Irrfan Khan as the adult Pi Patel, a college professor living in Canada with his wife and two children. An author, Rafe Spall as the Writer , is there to learn of Pi's story and write a book. In the end as Pi tells of the Japanese representatives of the shipping line visiting him in the hospital, they found his story hard to believe. So he told them a second, different, simpler story. When the writer questions the stories, searching for an answer, Pi asks, "Which story do you prefer?" The author of the book things we should prefer the first story, because everyone else dies anyway, but it is a much better story.
I have it on Blu-ray, the picture and sound are both just great. Definitely a movie to re-enjoy periodically.