Is the beauty of a story in the telling or in the experience itself?

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2013)

I feel conflicted about this movie because, even if it is a visually beautiful film and has a plot of many layers, even if the acting is great and the direction clearly good, at the end I just felt cheated.
First, there were the "ministories", of the origin of his name, the swimmer adoptive uncle and so on. They were mere anecdotes as related to the rest of the plot; they had no point other than to prolong the telling of the story. I am sure all of this would have been clearer in the book, but from the film I just felt like being baited from a story to the other, waiting for the "real" one to begin.
And maybe that was the whole point. The end quote regarding stories and God was relevant. Maybe it doesn't matter if you relate to a story, only that you listen to it told. However, I could not really relate to any character in the film except with the poor tiger. Yeah, I am a cat person.
Bottom line: different people will have wildly differing opinions on the film, and that is good, but in the end I feel I can't recommend or not recommend the movie because I am not really clear if I liked it or not. Perhaps reading the book before watching the film would be indicated.