A mess of a narrative, but a beauty of visual art.

Rating: 6/10 (12 April 2013)

Often considered a book to be ultimately unfilmable, Ang Lee faced a struggle in adapting Life of Pi. Was he successful? Well, anyway, the movie follows young Pi Patel, the lone survivor of a ship sinking, trapped for a long time on a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger as his companion. The film highlights some weighty and thought provoking issues of faith and religion, taking a bold road rarely seen in family films. It does sound like something that would work well in the script's favor, but then I have to back up and remind myself that the narrative is uneven, diminishing the emotional impact that should be felt, and the narration and present day sequences overstay their welcome.
To be fair, for a movie that spends half the time on a boat with only a young boy and tiger on screen, Life of Pi is still a decent movie to watch. No one can accuse Ang Lee of not knowing what he wanted this film to be, for his direction is the movie's strongest point. Lee is the proper example of a director fully confidant and in control of his own vision, so I do respect the film more than I actually liked it. If nothing else, we can all marvel at the visual aspects, which are quite enchanting, if at times a wee bit too obvious.
*** / *****