Life of Pi

Based on Yann Martel’s best-selling novel, Life of Pi follows Suraj Sharma’s Pi Patel as he and his family embark on a journey to North America on an enormous cargo ship – with a catastrophic storm sinking said ship and leaving Pi to fight for his life aboard a small lifeboat alongside a vicious tiger. It’s clear immediately that scripter David Magee isn’t looking to stray too far from the source material, as Life of Pi, for better or worse, contains virtually all of the beats and plot developments held within Martel’s lackluster book. This proves to be especially problematic in the film’s opening half hour, which details Pi’s exploration of various religions, as it’s ultimately difficult to work up much interest in or enthusiasm for the protagonist’s spiritual journey. And although director Ang Lee does a superb job with the movie’s enthralling shipwreck sequence, Life of Pi progresses into a midsection that’s just about as stagnant and uneventful as one might’ve feared – with the ongoing undercurrent of animal unpleasantness only exacerbating the movie’s hands-off feel. The inclusion of a few admittedly engrossing interludes during this stretch – eg Pi goes to impressive lengths to save the tiger’s life, the lifeboat is overrun by flying fish, etc – staves off total boredom, though it remains clear that Lee is concerned more with pretty, slick visuals than with cultivating (and maintaining) a compelling narrative. It goes without saying, then, that the big revelation contained within the movie’s final few minutes falls disappointingly flat (ie it simply isn’t able to make the emotional impact Lee is going for), which ultimately confirms Life of Pi‘s place as an underwhelming adaptation of an underwhelming book.

** out of ****