Maybe not an instant favorite, but it sure is gorgeous

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2012)

I didn't pay a ticket to see this film just because Ang Lee directed it. This was, in fact, only my second experience with his work – I'm still not interested at all in his HULK or in "Brokeback", and I'm waiting to get the Criterion version of THE ICE STORM. Anyway, I went for this since it looked great in the trailer and well, it's just one of those that gets literally universal acclaim – not just the likes of Roger Ebert are praising it, and even the good people of FANGORIA magazine called it "gorgeous" ("I urge anyone who loves the magic of pure cinema to see it in 3D" – Chris Alexander, Fangoria editor).
LIFE OF PI is one of those movies where the story is not only being told to us (the audience) – the protagonist Pi (played by four different Indian actors, each one for a different stage of his life) is actually telling his story to a writer for the potential writing of a book. Pi's life story must be, therefore, an amazing one, or else what the hell is doing a writer in Pi's house in Canada, right?
There's a moment in the film when Pi says to the writer something like "you must be wondering when we finally get to the incredible part of my story, the part about survival"; certainly we can think that Pi is saying that to us too – in specific to the part of the audience that got to see the trailer with the tiger and the boat and the incredible visuals.
LIFE OF PI is, basically, two different films in one; very different from each other I must add. In the first part the 3D format is ultimately useless, but don't get me wrong, waiting for the main show isn't something painful. The writer might be bored or just not completely amazed with the first part of Pi's story, but I'm sure you'll be totally entertained, laugh and find some truly memorable things. Irrfan Khan plays adult Pi; this actor had also a part in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Danny Boyle, 2008), which is the film that I think shares the most with the first part (and well "Slumdog" also has that "protagonist telling his story to someone else" element).
Certainly this part take us to India (the French India to be exact), and is as simple as this: if you enjoyed the childhood memories of the protagonist of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, and I'm sure you did, I can't think in a reason why you wouldn't like seeing, for instance, the origin of Pi's name (which is just too funny to reveal here) and some other of his childhood and teenage experiences (dealing with issues like religion and the first love).
The main question dealing with this film you might have is the following: "how did a young man ended in the middle of the sea, in a lifeboat together with a tiger?" The second part of the film opens with the kind of spectacular-full-of-CGI sequence that Steven Spielberg or James Cameron could have directed, if that makes sense. But soon, and as you know, everything will get minimalistic.
It's, indeed, quite a show, a gorgeous one. Some shots are definitely among the most beautiful ones captured on camera this year. The CGI work done with the animals is simply perfect (talking about animals, don't miss the nice title sequence!). Simply put: when you create a whole lot of emotions with only a young man and a tiger, you're definitely doing some great things. When this part was over I felt everything else that followed to be unimportant. LIFE OF PI tries to create an interesting take on how stories are told; it tries to make you doubt and think again in everything. Nevertheless nothing is as soulful or interesting as Pi's final encounter with the tiger that stayed with him for more than 200 days in a lifeboat.
I watched on the big screen "Slumdog", really liked it, but until this day I haven't felt the need to revisit it. I think this same thing will happen with LIFE OF PI; but certainly you should check it out.
*Watched it on 29 December, 2012