It's pretty damn pretty.

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2012)

It's Oscar season now and I am missing out. So, I felt it was time to gather up a group of people and go see one. I desperately want to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, because you really can't get much better than Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones. But I thought that the group would kill me if I made them sit through two and a half hours of it. I also want to see David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, but it isn't playing anywhere close to me. So, I settled for Ang Lee's Life of Pi.
Based off of the novel by Yann Martel, this movie has been in development for quite some time. Deemed impossible to make, eventually Lee stepped in. A wise choice I might say, considering this is the man who brought us Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. The movie sounded a little off-putting. But it looked very gorgeous, and I felt like this was something that needed to be experienced in a theater. Oh was I right.
Life of Pi is the story of a boy named Piscine, also known as Pi (older version is played by Irfhan Kahn, who is telling the story to a reporter) whose family owns a zoo. On their way to Canada, their ship crashes, leaving Pi alone on a rowboat, stranded at sea, with a few animals. One of which is a tiger named Richard Parker.
Midway through this movie, I realized what it reminded me of: 127 Hours, that great 2010 Danny Boyle movie with James Franco. This is similar to that movie in the way that the two heroes struggle to survive. Even though Pi never has to cut his arm off, Aron Ralston wasn't stranded for a year. This movie is much prettier than that one, and is the most visually breathtaking film made since last year's Hugo. The cinematography is gorgeous, so gorgeous in fact that I sort of wanted to jump into the screen with Pi. Also, the boat sinking sequence is up there with Titanic. I'd be shocked if it didn't win technical awards.
Life of Pi has some wonderful moments, and some sad moments, and some moving messages. But yet I was a little more intrigued with 127 Hours. That movie was about 87 minutes long. This movie is about two hours long, and though I was fascinated by the entire thing and some of it was pretty exciting, there were some stretches that felt a little slow. Even so, this is a movie that deserves admiration, and even though I don't think it's the best movie of the year, it's one of them. I'll see you at the Oscar starting line, Mr. Lee.
A-
Note: After giving it some thought, I realized that I wasn't really affected by it, so I bring my rating down to an 8 and a B+.