Review: Life of Pi
Participants: Shane, Jon
Initiator: Shane
Shane:
OK. I think I saw that you gave Life of Pi a C. I’m pretty
curious on why, though I have some suspicions as to why you’re so low on a
movie that I think was pretty well received. Though, upfront, I’d like to note
that if a movie does something exceptionally well or is a historical game
changer, I feel inclined to bump it up a bit.
With that, I’m giving Life of Pi a B+.
Starting with the easy part…Visually, this is obviously an A
or A+. I watched this on 720, and even on that level, holy balls, that was a
pleasure to watch. I probably could have happily watched much of that movie
with no dialogue.
In contrast, the part of the movie that I felt like was the
weakest was the some of the acting. The kids were largely horrible, which isn’t
really surprising since kids are awful at most things. The writer fellow, who I
think must have been an unfunny 3rd cousin of Ryan Reynolds wasn’t
too impressive either. Much of his dialogue seemed forced and his “conversion”
at the end was pretty flat and uninspiring.
On the flip side, the adult version of Pi was pretty solid.
I’m buying him. He absolutely saved those scenes.
I thought that the story was built up just fine. It seemed
evenly paced for the most part, other than annoying Canadian writer guy interrupting.
Pi’s background was entirely relevant up until the last moments of the film, so
that build up was entirely necessary and I think well enough done.
Now, the climax is pretty interesting. With this, I think
that there were two climaxes. The first was when RichardParker paused and then
walked into the jungle without looking back. The second was the alternate
telling of what happened. Both hit me emotionally in different ways. Of course,
the tiger leaving was sad. Yay animals, contact and relationships and all of
that. The second hit me in a much more intellectual manner and had me thinking
about reality and the capabilities and limitations of our minds and “souls.”
I’m guessing that the “this will make you believe in God”
part is what really turned you off. I think it’s intentionally ambiguous as to
what really happened, but I lean towards it really doesn’t matter what the
reality was. Taking his tiger story on its face is amazing and somewhat
believable. Man is smarter than a tiger. Pi used his intelligence to overcome
his physical inferiority. He credits God for all of the good fortune: Rain, the
tiger having no energy to fight and becoming docile, the water separating them,
the flying fish etc. But whether or not it was from God is irrelevant to the
watcher. These things could all be explained in reality and could have
happened. To Pi, these things all kept him alive. A positive mind that stays
busy is important in these situations. Where a person is mentally is can save
or doom them. That Pi praised God isn’t important, that he was thankful and
positive was.
And if there was no tiger, perhaps the other story is the
true one, this still makes sense. The human mind is both incredibly flawed and
resourceful. I’ve been reading a book about how easily our mind is fooled in
relation to criminal trials. Flashing a photo of someone to a victim of crime
and then later putting that person in a line-up will lead to the victim picking
that person out of a line-up and swearing that this person actually caused the
crime. We suck at keeping things organized in our heads. We get confused. We
create alternate realities.
Watching your mother eaten by sharks after being murdered is
something that could overwhelm anyone emotionally. In order to survive, a
person in that situation could possibly black out that memory or creating a new
one. Pi, as a vegetarian and peaceful person by nature and by nurture, is
incapable of believing this story is the reality. He creates the animals as it
lessens the emotional impact. It allows him to survive. He doesn’t become the
tiger, but rather the tiger is a part of him that his mind won’t allow to live
with him in the real world. The tiger slinks of meekly into the forest because
Pi doesn’t need that base instinct of survival any more. It slinks off with a slight
pause as Pi has a hard time letting go. Pi wants the tiger to look back in
order to see some sort of humanity in that relationship, but there is none. A
tiger remains an animal no matter what. The real world is no place for a tiger.
