Life of Pi: a Great Visual Experience

This is one of those movies that being offered in 2D and 3D format I would say truly it is better if you see it in 3D because that is the highlight of this film: when it comes to depict wild life I have rarely seen such an effort. Truly the photography is amazing. 

The film begins with Pi already a grownup talking to a writer who has been told Pi has an interesting story to tell so he is visiting Pi to hear that story. Pi is not this man´s real name but a short for Piscine which was the name his parents gave him. His parents owned a zoo in India but they have decided to move to Canada where his father has been offered a good job. Pi's father intends to sell his animals in Canada so he hires a Japanese freighter to take his family and the animals to Canada but one night during a storm something happens to the ship and it sinks. Pi is the only one who is awake and manages to get on a lifeboat. Amazingly one zebra, a hyena, an orangutan  and a Bengala tiger whose name is (by mistake) Richard Parker also get on the boat. Pi's family, his parents and older brother, along with the  rest of the crew did not make it. Soon afterthe storm ceases, the hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan, and the tiger surprisingly kills the hyena. Before the tiger attacks him, Pi manages to improvise a raft that he attaches to the boat where the tiger is. Both Pi and the tiger have to learn to live togeher it they want to survive and they do so  for two hundred and twenty days when the boat finally reaches the Mexican seashore. Pi is safe andto his dismay Richard Parker escapes to the jungle never to be seen again.

This is a movie with a lot to offer. It is not only the story of Pi's survival what makes the plot interesting there also are a lot of sidestories that Pi tells you as he carries on until the moment of the end that has a very subtle twist: while in hospital Pi receives the visit of two Japanese men, representatives of the company that built the freighter. They want to know what happened, why the ship sank. Pi tells them he does not know and also what happened during the days he stayed in the middle of the ocean and the men find it hard to believe. So Pi tells them another story that is less detailed but sounds more real. Thus it begs the question: what really happened? That is up to you. 

For me the best part is when the ship is sinking and Pi observes in despair under the sea knowing that his family are trapped there though most likeky dead by then. The lights of the ship are all of them still on so the freighter actually looks like a gigantic jelly descending to the depths of the sea. It is a sad, tragic scene but one you cannot avoid seeing with awe and amazement. The movie is entertaining and visually speaking, a fantastic experience. It is not a family movie because of certain circumstances but if you do not have little children to explain about the tragedy of losing your family in an instant or why Pi decides to embrace more than one religion then it is ok.         

If only for the photography and special effets this movie deserves not five but six stars. 

Four stars out of five for this one.