Director Ang Lee is the master of producing films that many
could consider unfilmable. With 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, Lee turned
Jane Austen’s rambling story of two sisters looking for love in the middle of
nowhere into an engaging, emotional picture. Brokeback Mountain (2005),
the controversial short story of two male cowboys deeply in love, was adapted
into a film both critically and commercially beloved. Likewise, with 2007’s Lust,
Caution, the sex scenes were so explicit that critics wondered if they were
unsimulated; yet, the movie opened to rave reviews.
Lee’s Life of Pi is no different. Based on the book
that’s a staple of so many a high school curriculum, the film tells the story
of a boy who loses his family in a shipwreck in the Pacific ocean en route from
India to Canada. Grappling with his grief, the boy, Pi (the name is explained to charming effect in the film), also finds himself on a
small lifeboat with a bevy of zoo animals that is soon whittled down to the
tiger Richard Parker.
Afloat in a gorgeous salty wasteland, Pi grapples with religion
(several, in fact), getting slapped in the face with massive schools of flying
fish, and taming the frustratingly feral Richard Parker.
I was skeptical about seeing this movie after hearing the ads
exclaiming that it is “the next Avatar!” Avatar’s plot nearly made me sleep due
to boredom, and dream in the deep blues and vivid greens of Pandora, the only
things that bemused me in the movie (yay, colors).
Thankfully, the color scheme and the sensually divine visuals
were only ties between the two films.
During several sequences of Life of Pi, I was so moved by
certain seascapes as viewed through my 3D glasses that I actually whispered
“pretty” with all the articulateness of a 4-year-old, much to the chagrin of
the British male sitting next to me. At one point, Pi sits in his boat on a
still night sea, with jellyfish illuminating the water for miles around. At
another, adorable meerkats scramble over one another and Pi on a vine-covered
island. Pi also experiences a vision while peering into a deep trench in the
sea so divine that I can’t – or maybe just won’t – describe it here.
But, it is important to note that this film doesn’t only triumph
in the realms of cinematography and special effects, but in its capacity to
move those who are watching. One can see the poignancy in older Pi’s eyes as he
narrates his story to a reporter, even though he is a successful professor with
a lovely family. His struggle is enormous, and not easy for the viewer to forget.
You will come out of this movie appreciating your family. Weird as
it sounds, I do love a good movie once in a while that causes me to go and wrap
my parents in bear hugs simply because they’re not dead.
You will ponder your existence. In the beginning, a humorous and
touching sequence described Pi’s growing beliefs in Islam, Hinduism, and
Christianity, and religion doesn’t leave the scene after it’s over. When a vicious
storm overtakes the shipwreck, Pi yells God that he is ready to die; a scene that when viewed on the big screen is actually quite disturbing.
Finally, you will likely have a
nightmare involving a shipwreck. But Life of Pi, the supposedly unfilmable film
about a boy, a lifeboat, a tiger, and the endless salty sea, is worth the
visions of sinking in the ocean, for that ocean will be a heavenly mix of aqua
and indigo, and alight with the bioluminescence of a million sea creatures –
and maybe a tiger.
Paige Shermis is a contributor to this blog. She is a sophomore English major at Kenyon College who likes napping, string lights, and John Keats. She adds a feminine perspective as well as an English major-y feel to the atmosphere of this site (she likes to think).
No comments:
Post a Comment