Life of Pi

Release Date: November 21, 2012

Watch Date: November 5, 2023

“Embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this visual masterpiece from Oscar Winner Ang Lee, based on the best-selling novel. After a cataclysmic shipwreck, young Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with only one other survivor – a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Bound by the need to survive, the two are cast on an epic journey that must be seen to be believed.”

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    I couldn’t tell you why, but this movie never interested me much. In the same way that Inception never did. It’s not that I like a straight forward story, but I think I like to be made to think more by the copious amounts of books that I read, then to question plots and motives in film – ironically. I can say through this marathon that I am growing to appreciate the media of film as a way to tell deeper, more important stories, but I would by lying if I said that in the past that was what I looked for in my movie watching experiences.

    Bob, on the other hand, has always preferred film as a way to tell deep stories. He loves to tell me about the composition of shots, the choice of actors, the style of writing. For a man who most would think just likes action movies, or slasher flicks, at least if you asked most of his friends, he’s got a deep love and respect for film as a form of art. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he told me ‘Life of Pi’ was one of his favorite films of all time, but I was.

    I can see why, for someone who views movies in the way that my husband does, this one is so spectacular. It’s breathtaking to look at, the colors are vibrant, the way shots are set up are astounding, the vast emptiness of the ocean, the desolation. The CGI has not aged super well, in my opinion, in that I could immediately call it out when I saw it, but that’s a limitation of technology, and not so much the film itself.

    Everyone deals with trauma in their own way, and I do enjoy that it is up to each person how they interpret Pi’s experience on the boat. Is this simply a boy who tells tall tales; memorizing an impossible number of digits of pi, or expanding greatly on his family friend from childhood, the one that suggests writer meet story teller as the introductory examples we receive, or, is this a person who pulled through an amazing and completely unique human experience and lived to tell about it? Are parts true, and others false? Are parts delirium from hundreds of days out on sea with inadequate food or water? Is there a Richard Parker inside of all of us waiting to strike when times become desperate enough, or is there simply a Richard Parker we must all face in our lives, come to terms with, and learn to accept and appreciate?

    It’s up to us, as the audience, to come to our own conclusions with these, and many other questions, the story puts to us. We can choose to try and answer all, or only some, or none and simply enjoy a story. Bob happily stated before we pressed play that he finds something new to enjoy from this film every single time, some new message to pull, something new about life to learn. A new way to see and experience it. I don’t know if I could personally watch it that frequently so as to pull anything new from it, or that I would remember what epiphany I came to on previous viewings, but there are some paintings I can understand the beauty of and still not want to stare at for hours too. Art is subjective.

    If you haven’t tried watching ‘Life of Pi’ yet, I do recommend it, because it is enjoyable, it is gorgeous, and it might surprise you. You might find a deeper enjoyment in than you expected to, and even if you don’t, you will still get to watch an entertaining movie. And if you have watched it before, try it again, see if, like Bob, you can pull something new from it, see if you can find a new message, a new way to see the world, or the film, or yourself, that you hadn’t thought of before.