Outstanding

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2013)

'Life of Pi' is a story about a young man stranded on a boat in the middle of the Pacific with a tiger after the ship carrying his family and their zoo sinks. Directed by Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), this is a spectacular film with a lot of great qualities.
There's pretty much just one actor in this; Suraj Sharma makes a great debut here and I really hope his career takes off after this despite not being nominated for an Oscar unfortunately. It must be challenging being the only actor on-screen for 90% of the film with no one to converse with except a CGI tiger- Sharma handles this well though and his performance is thoroughly entertaining. Irfan Khan doesn't have much screen time but he gives a powerful performance, particularly in the last scene. Rafe Spall is a bit disappointing; he doesn't show any emotion in crucial scenes and he can take away the power and quality of a scene because of this. The exact opposite of an actors' job!
I am opposed to 3D in cinema and therefore chose to see this in traditional, 'boring' 2D. Visually, it is still spectacular despite it being advertised as a film made for 3D (doesn't every 3D films' advertising campaign argue this?). The CGI animals – excluding the tiger – can look obviously fake and tacky at times which can be a bit off- putting but this is very brief. The night sequences are over the top and unrealistic but are beautiful and do somehow suit the film – Ang Lee has done well in creating the setting.
Overall, this is an excellent film which is sure to do well at the Oscars. It's not really similar to any of Ang Lee's other works but it is a great film to watch and is expertly made. Unfortunately, I hadn't read the book so I can't tell if it is any better but, from what I do know about the book, I think this film tries to stay as close to it as possible.