Life of Pi is a visual masterpiece that film purists should not miss. If this movie is all intriguing to you, I recommend seeing it as quickly as possible. To experience the true value of this movie, it must be seen in the theater. The 3D effects are superb, but just as important is experiencing this movie on the largest screen available. As I told a friend, if you only go to the cinema a handful of times per year, there might be better movies to see. I might even recommend a film that isn’t as good as Life of Pi based on your preferences. But if your goal is to see as many great movies as you can in one year, this is not to be missed.

The premise of the movie revolves around Piscine (newcomer Suraj Sharma). We are introduced to Pi (Irrfan Khan) as an adult when he meets a struggling writer (Rafe Spall). The writer is told by a mutual friend that Pi has quite the story that will have him believe in God by the end. The writer is all ears, so Pi begins telling him his life story. Pi lives in India with his father, mother, and older brother. His father is a zookeeper who is forced to move his animals from India to Canada after being told that he owns the animals in his zoo but not the land on which it is. To start over in Canada, Pi’s father must transport his family and all of the animals over the Pacific Ocean. Here, the ship (for unknown reasons) wrecks and begins to sink. However, Pi manages to find his way onto a lifeboat with Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger.

Sharma is by no means a veteran actor, and he comes across as raw. He certainly can’t handle being the only actor on the screen for an extended period like Tom Hanks (Castaway), Will Smith (I Am Legend), or James Franco (127 Hours) can. Yet, these three actors have all earned Best Actor Academy Award nominations (all but Smith for that exact role). At times, Sharma’s dialog and acting were very poor, but somehow they didn’t deflate the movie. The tiger was computer animated, and at times it showed. Often it showed. And it wasn’t like there was any chemistry between Pi and Richard Parker that kept the movie-going. It was the visuals and the “what’s going to happen next” mind frame. This worked for a very, very long time. Unfortunately, Lee tried to stretch the movie longer than he should have. Yet, the fact that it was 10-15 minutes longer than needed didn’t make me appreciate it any less once it was over. It was beautiful, yet flawed…like all of us.

If you are like me and try to see as many movies as possible, you want to catch this one. If you want something beautiful, watch this one. If you are skeptical and you’re only going to go in looking for flaws, you might want to watch something else. Even though Lee has already won a Best Actor Academy Award, I hope he wins again. I hope this movie also wins some awards for sound mixing and visuals. It’s deserving. It should not win Best Picture, though. There are too many flaws for it to be named the best movie of 2012.

Plot 9/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 7.5/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing  10/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
86%

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