Life of Pi (2012): Ang Lee's visually stimulating tale of survival with a weak intellectual appeal

Lee's perfunctory rendition of Martel's profound literary vision

A Potpourri of Vestiges Review

By Murtaza Ali

Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews 

Life of Pi (2012)- By Ang Lee

Our Rating: 6.5

IMDb Ratings: 8.3

Genre: Adventure | Drama

Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain

Country: USA
Language: English

Runtime: 127 min

Color: Color

Summary: A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.

Life of Pi is a 2012 adventure film directed by celebrated Taiwanese American filmmaker Ang Lee. The screenplay of the movie, an adaptation of the award-winning 2001 novel of the same name by Yann Martel, is written by David Magee. An eclectic cast of international actors, including the likes of Irrfan Khan, Gérard Depardieu, Rafe Spall, James Saitu, Andrea Di Stefano, and Tabu, adorns Life of Pi. The movie presents the extraordinary tale of survival of a Pondicherry-based Indian boy named Piscine “Pi” Patel (played by Suraj Sharma) who gets stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific following a shipwreck.  But guess what? Pi is not alone. He has for company a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a ferocious Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi has his back against the wall as he must strategize an escape route while simultaneously trying to ward off any possible danger from his feral companions, especially the imperious Richard Parker. During the course of the journey a strange sort of a relationship develops between two completely different species, Pi and Parker, which makes one contemplate about the importance of companionship in life.

Richard Parker in Ang Lee's Life of Pi

It’s would be remiss of me to analyze a movie like Life of Pi without underscoring its technical brilliance. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that on the technical front Life of Pi easily features amongst the best works of cinema. The use of CGI and VFX is absolutely sublime. In fact, the special effects make Life of Pi a visually stunning experience. The panoramic views of the vast Pacific expanse, the breathtaking shots of the marine life, and the close-up sequences of the majestic Richard Parker are simply irresistible to watch. Alas, the same cannot be said of movie’s other aspects! While Lee and his team deserve kudos for using technology to such great effect, they also deserve flak for diluting several motifs (especially spirituality)  that underline Martel’s novel. Sadly, this has become quite consistent with contemporary commercial cinema, and even serious filmmakers of Ang Lee's stature haven’t managed to escape it.  
 

Suraj Sharma as "Pi" Patel in Life of Pi

Having grown up watching Wuxia serials on television, I have always been a great fan of martial arts—albeit merely as a spectator. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was a dream come true for me. To be able to adapt a Wuxia novel into a full-fledged motion-picture in itself is a remarkable achievement, but to make it good enough to be able to win as many as four Oscars (that too for a foreign language picture) is nothing short of exemplary. Five years later Ang Lee made yet another eccentric gem, Brokeback Mountain (2005), which won three Oscars including the one for the best director. Lee’s movies have never been known for compromising substance for style. Lee, like any great auteur, has never been shy of injecting a sense of realism into his films. Unfortunately, Life of Pie takes a paradigm shift from Lee’s conventional style of filmmaking. The sense of realism has made way for style and glamour. The creativity has taken a backseat to technology. It seems as if the soul of an artist has been sucked dry and what is left of it has some kind of a mechanical precision attached to it.
 

A Still from Ang Lee's Life of Pi

Most of the themes that Life of Pi touches upon (especially survival) have already been tackled much more effectively in the past. In Cast Away (2000), Robert Zemeckis had brilliantly presented the poignant tale of a FedEx executive who gets stranded on a deserted island. While it’s difficult to overlook the pivotal role played by Tom Hanks’ stellar presence in movie’s overwhelming success, one just cannot ignore the sense of realism, maturity and purpose in Cast Away's plot that’s clearly missing in Life of Pi. Sean Penn's Into the Wild (2007), based on a real-life story, was also quite effective in dealing with similar themes. Another great movie that comes to mind is John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific (1968), starring Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune. Also, Life of Pi's somewhat bizarre ending inexplicably reminds one of Tim Burton's fantastical adventure Big Fish (2003). 
 

A Still from Ang Lee's Life of Pi

The acting in Life of Pi ranges from average to good. Debutant Suraj Sharma delivers a decent performance as the young "Pi". A first-year Philosophy student at Delhi University's prestigious St. Stephens College, Sharma had to compete against three thousand other aspirants, who also auditioned for role of Pi, in order to secure the berth in the movie. Due his commitments to the movie, Sharma failed to meet the college's criterion of 66% attendance and had to submit some extra assignments to make up for it. While veteran French actor Gérard Depardieu's single scene appearance as the grumpy cook aboard the Japanese ship is quite easily one of the high points of the movie, Irrfan Khan's portrayal of the grown-up Pi Patel sadly turns out to be a major disappointment. It's a classic case of a talented international actor falling prey to Hollywood's perpetual inability to do justice to talent.
 

Pi Patel makes it to the Mexican Coast

Overall, Life of Pi at best is a perfunctory work of cinema that overpromises and under delivers. Despite being visually stimulating, it's quite low on substance.   The real star of the show, for my money, is Richard Parker whose feral presence uplifts the movie. The scenes that feature him are absolutely magical vis-a-vis those that don't. However, it's disappointing to note that most of the scenes involving Pie and Richard Parker have been created digitally. Also, the Pacific Ocean depicted in the movie is a digitally enhanced version of a water tank in Taiwan. And clearly, like so often is the case with contemporary Hollywood productions, the technology ends up overshadowing the human artistry. Claudio Miranda’s cinematography is easily the movie’s strongest part and is well completed by Mychael Danna’s music. Life of Pi serves to be an enthralling experience for the children and less keen audience whose sole purpose is entertainment, but those wanting to indulge themselves at much higher levels are ought to be disappointed. 

Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!  

For more information on the title, please click on the following links:

IMDb

Wikipedia

Life of Pi (2012) Trailer

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