Crowd-pleasing turn from Ang Lee

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2013)

You already know the story. Emigrating to Canada with his family on a rust-bucket freighter, an Indian zoo-keeper's son is the sole survivor when the ship goes down in a storm. Not quite the sole survivor: he shares his lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utang . . . and a magnificent Bengal tiger improbably named Richard Parker. Mr Parker soon eats his companions, apart from young Pi Patel who retreats to a raft made of debris strung out behind the lifeboat. They survive on the lifeboat's rations and some fortuitous fish catches until they beach on a floating island populated by mongooses (not mongeese, I just looked it up). Over time they reach an uneasy truce, but the script is at pains not to sentimentalise their relationship.
Apart from Rafe Spall as the writer to whom the adult Pi is telling his tale (and a cameo by Gerard Depardieu), all the cast are Indians. Suraj Sharma, who plays the castaway Pi, is not one of those preposterously handsome Asian stars, he's quite ordinary looking (actually I was reminded of an Indian version of Labour leader Ed Milliband!) but as natural an actor as SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE's Dev Patel. The animals are mostly CGI but very believable, especially the fabulous Richard Parker. The storm scenes are spectacular; in 3D you almost need to put an umbrella up.
The movie is perhaps a tad too long, but it's never tedious. The feeling of being taken on an adventure rarely lets up. Full marks to Ang Lee, a director whose career has taken many a crowd-pleasing turn. This is a magical alternative to the Christmas pantomime.