I redden to admit that I have not yet read Yann Martel's Life of Pi and now, having seen Ang Lee's film adaptation of the novel, I cannot wait to go pick up a copy. Many of my friends list this as one of their favorite films and were mortified when they discovered it was going to be put onto the big screen. After all, a book doesn't get the label of "unfilmable" without good reason. I was not terribly skeptical going into the theatre though. Not having read the book I had no idea why it would be deemed so, and my faith in Ang's storytelling abilities is firm. I know understand their trepidation, why people love the story and why they were afraid of its butchering. I would like to say, however, that my faith in Ang is there with good reason and is as true as ever.
A young Indian boy named Piscine (Pi, for short), gifted with the incredible ability to memorize the digits of the concept of pi, grew up in a fantastic zoo in the French region of Pondicherry, in a liberal household where Pi was able to explore his passions. Though he was raised Hindu, he found that his passions fell to God in his many different forms. The peaceful, thoughtful and learned boy became a Catholic and a Muslim while also worshiping the three million gods of the Hindu faith.
When his father decides to sell the family's zoo and move to Canada, they board an ill-fated steamship which sinks in a storm. Pi finds himself the sole survivor in a lifeboat, along with several of the animals being transported, including a wounded zebra, a hyena, an orangutan named Orange Juice and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. "Life of Pi" is the story (the fable?) of a young man lost at sea, and his 227 day journey trapped with the animals, fighting for survival.
To talk much more about the narrative would be pointless, for the very nature of the story inhibits it from being articulated, though it is explained with a narrator, Pi's adult self. The book was considered unfilmable for the very reason that it is not meant to be discussed, I don't think. It was one of those rare experiences for me where I went into the cinema with many other people and had my own deeply personal conversation with the material. The film emoted to me and I interpreted what I saw in the way I saw most fitting. I was not unique in that way, but how I saw the film was absolutely individual.
The shortened version of the story is the one I have given, but so much more than that this is a story about a confused soul coming to terms with God. It is about a person who soul is stranded in an ocean of trials as much as his physical body. The plot is rambling, at times slow, often grand and majestic in its visionary scope, but never once is anything less than completely absorbing. When watching the film I felt I was less looking at a young Indian boy and a tiger in a boat, but rather myself, as I hope each audience member viewed it.
Ang's film reminded me very much of "Tree of Life" in the visual splendor of what it tried to convey. Ang did his best to translate what a person might feel when he thinks of God on earth, of what that entity's true power is. It is one of the most strikingly beautiful films that I can recall ever having seen, with the best usage of 3-D I know I have ever seen. It tops "Avatar" and "Hugo" for its relevance, and is nothing short of a masterpiece in the cinematographic sense. This movie has about a million and a half wow-moments and left me with my mouth agape through much of it.
I am not sure that this is the type of movie that I could see more than once. I know very well that it isn't something that I could ever watch with a friend, nor could it be something that I talked about afterwards in any other capacity but a technical one. My thoughts are my own regarding Pi and Richard Parker, as I hope you keep yours as well. But although I will not dissect it publicly at a deeper lever I will declare here and now that this is in the very, very close running for best picture of the year. If films like this came about more often it might restore my faith in the creative powers of the cinema.
4/4
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