Visually stunning. Engrossing storyline

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2013)

I went into Life of Pi not knowing anything about it. I'd seen trailers, and assumed it was a "Jungle Book on Water" sort of story. The trailers don't really do it justice as far as conveying what sort of story it is. It's a truly memorable film.
A young boy, Pi, on his way to Canada with his family and their animals from their zoo, is shipwrecked and left stranded in the middle of the ocean on a boat with nothing but a Bengal Tiger to keep him company. But, unlike the Jungle Book, where you'd imagine the boy and the tiger become best friends and head off on an exciting adventure together, this story remains anchored in realism. This tiger is an actual tiger, which tends to want to maul and eat animals, including our protagonist, and there is a very effective scene early on that establishes this premise.
The story becomes a tale of how the two manage to survive in close proximity with each other, each knowing the other wants to survive, and each knowing that, somehow, survival is dependent on the other. And as the final scenes start to show, the metaphor behind the scenario is deep and thought-provoking. Questions of religion, faith, humanity and the soul are raised, and you'll leave the cinema having experienced a pretty thought-provoking film.
Suraj Sharma has to carry the film, as he and his CGI (for the most part) tiger are the only two characters on screen for most of the 2+ hours, echoing shades of Cast Away. And Sharma does a terrific job for a young and relatively unheard of actor. Ang Lee certainly brings out the best in his performance, and the effects on the tiger are sensational. You know he must be a CGI creation, simply for safety and practicality reasons, but you truly can't tell at times whether its one of the few scenes that has an actual tiger in it. It goes to show how far CGI has come.
It's a visually stunning film, and its cinematography certainly adds to the story, rather than just provide a platform. Lee has always been good at using the surroundings to bring a story to life, and whilst sometimes, it maybe feels a little too pushed (the whale scene, whilst stunning, seems a little over the top), it's still wonderfully done. I didn't even find the 3D effects distracting.
I would be surprised if this won any Oscars, simply cause it's maybe not the sort of film that would lead to any sort of wins, except maybe in the visual effects field, but its still certainly a terrific movie to take in. I suspect reading the book may give further meaning to the film's themes, but there are plenty there already to deal with.