Thursday, November 22, 2012

RAVE - Life of Pi

Only to be expected of Ang 'Crouching Tiger' Lee, this was an engrossing story, beautifully shot, with plenty of heart-stopping action at sea.

It's the story and a half of young Pi Patel, son of a zoo owner in Pondicherry, India. Faced with an uncertain financial future, Patel Sr. decides to move the family to Canada, and takes his zoo animals with them in a freighter. 

The ship meets a wild storm in the middle of the Pacific, and everyone and everything goes down, except Pi and a few of the animals. He's set adrift on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger. Sounds like the start of a joke, I know, but the weeks and months on the ocean prove to be an arduous yet life-affirming journey for Pi and the tiger - less so for the unfortunate zebra, hyena, and orangutan.

While gorgeous looking, the film didn't really benefit from 3D, as there are only so many shots of tiger claws and teeth one can stomach lunging out from the screen.

Yes, it was slightly long, and the way the film was a little too nicely tidied up with an explanation of who each lifeboat passenger signified was in some ways unnecessary.

Either way, you won't see another film like this for a while.

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