Nice Film But Not Perfect

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2012)

By now everyone will know Life of Pi is the story of a young boy and a Bengal Tiger trapped on a small lifeboat after the sinking of their ship. Visually the film is without peer, with strong acting and well drawn characters. We are treated to some superb CGI renderings of sea and land creatures and the 3D is used to good effect. I believe Life of Pi features the best CGI rendered creatures to date and makes the likes of Avatar look like a 1980's computer game.
I saw Pi yesterday and I did very much enjoy it, but I can understand why some people might be disappointed. It really depends on the level of expectation you are going into the cinema with. I went in merely expecting a nice story and for me I got this. The story is driven nicely along and never becomes dull, despite long periods without dialogue or any particularly action. The story itself is so simple and enjoyable that it could be the film is best enjoyed at that level alone, but there is another level, a parable, and that worked for me too. But I was acutely aware that the symbolism and metaphors used in this level were laid on very thick and that subtlety is not Pi's middle name.
As an example, there is a short bit of exposition near the end and it was like being hit by a sledgehammer, talk about patronise the audience. Clearly these ham-fisted elements are designed to convey meaning to those audience members who are more at home reading picture books with big writing, but it's this side of Hollywood that detracts from films and grates on a lot of movie-goers.
Life of Pi is a very simple story and is very easy to decipher, there's no great reward for decoding this sort of film. And there is nothing wrong with that, sometimes the simplest stories are the best, but when the film attempts to elevate itself above its station via heavy use of symbolism or allegory, it can become self-important and even pretentious. I think Pi dallies with the former but does avoid the latter, nonetheless the heavy-handed application of these elements do detract from what is a very good film and it's quite clear the message could have been delivered far more elegantly.
Nonetheless, if you go into the cinema just wanting to see a good story told via the magic of cinema, you will be pleased with the Life of Pi.