Life of Pi

Ratings: 8.4/10

Film Class: B+ 

Genre: "Fantasy" Drama

I was holding back my 3 earlier posts because I didn't have the drive to blog them especially during this hectic period of mine. However, after watching Life of Pi today, I thought I certainly had to post a review of it. 

I held back on watching it, cos' frankly, I don't really like how "fake" the visuals seem during the trailer. They were too fantasy-like for me. And to watch a movie about a boy and his friendship with a tiger? I expected it to be preeety booring... 

I did slap myself (not literally) after that, not to keep myself awake, but for thinking this movie was going to be just another kiddy-fantasy lack of dialogue film. Even though he did direct a few good movies, I'm not a fan of Ang Lee, so I wasn't tempted by the mention of his name in the trailer. And the fact that the book was once a best seller, also wasn't that strong a motivation for me. 

I... caught it anyway (had 2 free tickets), and thank God I did. Just like how this film would have explained it, I believe there's a reason for everything that happens. 

Be prepared for a rather lengthy review, any less of it would be to do it injustice. I've heard a couple of my friends saying how they didn't like the movie because it was a very "alone"/solo kinda film. Well, you either like it, or you don't. A boy being stranded out at sea with having only the company of a tiger. Was this like Cast Away? And as some of the reviews claim, "The Next Avatar"? Er... yup, it's stating the obvious, but Life of Pi is in a class of its own. To sum it up early, it's like a hybrid of Cast Away, Avatar, Big Fish, Chronicles of Narnia and Doubt.

*Major major spoilers ahead, with synopsis, sorry for being evil by fusing the 2, just this time I promise. But if you haven't caught the film, I would recommend checking the synopsis out on Imdb first... * 

Cast Away, because he's stranded at sea, and instead of "Wilson", Tom Hanks' rugby ball, there's "Richard Parker", the tiger. But it's not that void of dialogue because Pi, the protagonist's name, would think-talk to himself and the story was narrated by the adult Pi, hence the story of Pi. 

Avatar, cos' of the stunning out-of-the-world visuals of the ocean creatures. While mostly exaggerated at times, it brings out the beauty of the ocean and it's habitants during unwelcoming (for the cast)/ welcoming (for the audience) moments. Notably, the scenes of luminous jelly fishes, flying fishes and the island full of meerkats were all breathtakingly memorable. 

Big Fish, the entire movie was a narrative film, showing a novelist interviewing, or having a chat with a grown up Pi. There were elements of fantasy in his story, but instead of them being viewed as unreal, in Big Fish, Life of Pi is more directed towards the "fantasy" being true. 

Chronicles of Narnia, there were references to religions, and a unique on-screen discussion about religions, specifically Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. While I don't exactly know how the animals and Pi are referenced, I would imagine there's some hint of "Noah's Ark" and the relationship with God between Pi and the tiger. 

Doubt, at the end of film, it doesn't tell you the "truth", but more on what you want to believe. The movie gives you the choice to believe what is, and what is not, though it was skewed towards the "fantasy" being the truth. I thought it was inappropriate to leave out the inverted commas in "fantasy" when I typed it in the genre because just like one's faith and belief in God, while some "facts" cannot be reasoned like the splitting of the Red Sea by Moses etc., that doesn't exactly mean it's not real or that it didn't happen... which is one of the main plots of the movie. 

If after reading you still don't know what this movie is about, it's actually primarily about faith in God (religions). 

The opening scene already got me psyched with what seemed like a short 5-min silent documentary on animals (I love animals!). The scenes behind the origins of the boy and how he got his name were light-hearted and engaging, but things got rather sombre after his shipwreck, leaving him all alone with the tiger. 

If you thought this movie was about a boy and his friendship with the stranded animals, you thought wrong. The only stranded animal was the tiger. The only animal he ever made connection with was the tiger. And if you thought this movie was about a seemingly impossible friendship with a tiger on board a stranded boat, you thought wrong too. Because the connection with the tiger was a realistic one. No hugging, BFFs one-tragedy brought them closer together scenes. What you'll see is the constant fear and constant efforts by Pi to tame the wild tiger. 

Making friends was never on his agenda, surviving was. There was no human pet-talk to the tiger which would somehow make it seem to understand human language, or either of them protecting one another by shielding the other party with their bodies... or what not. The "loose" connection between the both of them, was what I didn't expect, and was glad there wasn't the cliché animal-human connections one would normally see in films. 

There were quite a handful of "morals of the story", one on faith in religions, the other on the strength of the human spirit, also on whether animals actually "feel" and another, about goodbyes. I didn't get the carnivorous island and thought the discovery of a tooth in a wrapped up plant was off, but am sure it meant something.

The ending scene explained blatantly that the tiger did feel for Pi (that Pi did cross his mind before leaving him) and that connections between animals and humans were indeed possible, even with vicious carnivorous wild animals. Just like humans, all animals have souls, and having a soul means more than just being stuck at survivor instincts, but also being able to create invisible connections. 

But the one thing which really struck a chord in my heart was about saying goodbye. And I will leave you with that. 

There was a scene about Pi explaining to the novelist that he felt hurt that the tiger didn't even look back at him before entering the woods and disappearing from his life forever. He also regretted never saying goodbye to his father and to his family who died during the shipwreck. 

The goodbyes that really matter, are never said. Or at least one would never really have the chance to say their final goodbyes. When someone close to you passes away, it will always be too late to say your goodbyes because you wouldn't expect it to happen, resulting in life-time remorse. Cherish your loved ones, and tell them how much they mean to you because you won't have the chance to say goodbye to them when they leave you for good. And even though someone doesn't say goodbye to you or vice versa, it doesn't mean everything that happened before didn't matter, it did, it's just a matter of being able to "hear" the silent goodbyes...