What I thought was an unfilmable book has been brought to life - brilliant, beautiful life - by director Ang Lee and his team.
Yann Martel's 2001 novel tells the story of Pi, a teenage boy from India. For one reason or another, Pi is the only human survivor of a mid-Pacific shipwreck. Fortunately, he has a lifeboat. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, there is also a Bengal tiger on board. The two survive each other, the weather, thirst and hunger for an incredible seven and a half months. Film that!
That is just what Ang Lee did. Well, that is what he partly did. What couldn't be filmed was created by visionary digital artists using powerful computers and ultra-sophisticated software. Marry the visuals to an intelligent screenplay (written by David Magee), mix it with some adroit directing and editing, and the film Life of Pi has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing films ever made.
Yes, there are ocean-loads of beauty in this film, and I won't even begin to describe any of it. But how much of it was real and how much was CGI? This question parallels the one asked in the book - which of Pi's two accounts of his voyage is true? Unreliable narration. It's not always a bad thing. Life of Pi - the book and the film - bears this out.
10 out of 10 for the film.
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