I went
to watch 'The life of Pi' but this story doesn't start there: I told
my colleagues at work, one who got to watch a pre-preview showing
courtesy of Fox studios and he compared it to Avatar in terms of a
visual experience. I became excited, as Avatar was a movie I truly
enjoyed watching. Like porn: I don't remember the story but I
remember I couldn't take my eyes off it. This excitement soon wore
off when he told me that most of the film revolved around a boy, a
tiger and the sea. What? That sounds boring I stated, I don't care
how blue the sea is or how High Definition the tiger is. My
excitement wore off, how many fun things can a boy, a tiger and a
boat get up to in the sea? But then again how much fun do plumbers
and teachers in classrooms and bathrooms have in porn?
The
movie
It was a
real 'pretty movie': a visual masterpiece. The tiger and the boys
interplay was visually astounding. I felt the fear and exhilaration
where I believe I should have, because of how realistic the tigers
anger, desperation and fear was. I'm not sure if they used CGI but it
seemed so realistic.
But was
this just another Avatar: Decent film but visually amazing? No, I
thought it was a really interesting story that by the end was very
well told. I never read the book so as to be able to give a fairer
account of the movie, because I didn't want to be swayed in my
opinion. I am uber professional like that, but I had heard the book
would be a challenge to present as a movie. Not having read the book
and therefore not really knowing, I will dis-regard that little bit
of context and un-important information and categorically state that
they did a good job. The narrative was easy enough to follow and the
film had me gripped throughout.
The
story is driven by Pi's recollection of events to a novelist looking
for an amazing story. The story is sold as so compelling, it
would make the listener believe in God. Without giving too much away
the story does largely constitute of a guy, a boat and a tiger, but
as you will notice during and in my case after watching the movie
there are many deep interlaced themes throughout the film. Many,
which went above my head:
At
work the next day:
Colleague:
what did you think of the movie?
Abs:
really good, (repeat some of the things from above). Did you know
that the actor is a nobody and went to the casting just for a laugh
with his brother and he got selected. Didnt blow no one or anything,
just got lucky, I think I might just go to actor castings for the fun
of it and become a movie star. I have the ass-hole look right? I'm
pretty sure it works for Colin Farrell.
Colleague:
Yeah but to be an asshole and be liked you have to be hot, Colin
Farrell case in point!
Me:
Darn! Touché!
Colleague:
Were you offended by the story?
Me:
offended, why?
...
(And now
the deep bit)
One of
the interlaced themes within the movie is that of faith, God and
belief. Bad things happen to our protagonist within the movie, as bad
things happen to people in everyday life. We can create stories,
discourse, legends that are somewhat unbelievable but grandiose and
romanticise our harsh reality. These help us deal with these issues,
this story is arguably called religion. Pi tells a story that we want
to believe, heck watching the movie I was actually saddened when I
realised it wasn't the truth (logically unbelievable as it was), so
much so that I wish we never realised the truth, and in that moment
the point of how this story will make you believe in God is
understood. The point is we want to believe in religion and God
because it makes our difficult lives bearable, it helps give meaning
to the shitty things that happen to us. It's not a far fetched
explanation of why and how some people follow religion. (Not all and
not I)
In
conclusion: A film I highly recommended, gripping story, visually
amazing, a flipping tiger as a main character (not since the Jungle
Book I tell you) and some interesting, thought provoking themes to
top it all off. Solid 8, weak 9 out of 10
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