The Life of Pi

This movie left me puzzled after I saw it. I quite didn't know what to make of it. As I write these lines, I’m still unsure whether I liked it or not, but I least I felt it was interesting enough to write about. This should be a good start, shouldn't it?

The movie is based on the bestselling book of the same name published back in 2001, which went on to win the Man Booker award, one of the top literature awards for English written publications. I never read it, which would have helped in writing about and analysing the movie.

The story is fictional, and refers to an extraordinary adventure endured by the main character, Pi Patel, when he was a teenager. A writer meets an adult Patel, now in his forties, wanting to know about a shipwreck where Patel was the only survivor thirty years prior. Patel agrees to tell him all about it, and the story begins to unfold.

The story of the shipwreck and subsequent events is told by Patel in two times, as an adult and as a teenager. A young Patel left India for Canada with his father, mother and older brother. The family owned a zoo and wanted to move it, animals included, to a better market in Canada. They board a big freighter ship that capsizes during a storm of epic proportions. The only survivors of this were Pi, a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan named Orange Juice and a tiger named Richard Parker.

It then becomes a story of survival, the search for faith and the relationship between a boy and a tiger.

Without reading the book, it’s difficult to interpret what the author wanted to highlight on this story. I presume it would be the search for God. At the start of the movie, prior to the shipwreck, Pi had been intensely looking for the truth about God and had embraced three religions. He was born a Hindi, but then learnt about Jesus Christ and prayed as a Christian. He even told his parents he wanted to be baptised. Later on, he is seen praying as a Muslim. During the 227 days he was adrift, he talks to God, thanks him for the life he’s had. On other occasions, he confronts God, demanding to know why he keeps punishing him. In other words, all the struggles humans go through in the course of their lives trying to understand, to justify, the existence of an almighty God that controls our lives.

As explained previously, after some awkward events, Pi ends up in a boat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and the Bengal tiger. The hyena ends up killing the zebra and the orangutan and is killed by the tiger. From then on, Pi and the tiger fight over the control of the boat. After many incidents where the tiger (named Richard Parker by Pi) almost kills the boy, they end teaming up and learn to survive together. They become close mates, brothers in arms, struggling for survival against the Pacific Ocean and its many dangers. This relationship reminded me of that between Tom Hanks and Wilson, the volleyball in “Cast Away”. Pi initially feared for his life and at one point he could have let the tiger drown, but the possibility of being left alone at sea made him change his mind and saved the animal, risking his own life in the process.

Pi even finds an island, which is occupied by thousands of meerkats, and Pi believes they’re finally saved. The tiger has a feast with the meerkats and Pi eats leaves and roots, but at night Pi finds out the island is “carnivore” and feeds on its occupants (something that is not fully explained in the movie, but possibly much clearer in the book) Next morning, Pi and his pet tiger board the boat and off they go again, avoiding been eaten by the island.

It was just when both Pi and the tiger were about to die of starvation, thirst and exhaustion, that they reach the shores of Mexico. An exhausted Pi, laying face down on the beach, watches helplessly as the tiger walks into the jungle, leaving him forever. As he’s been carried away to a hospital by locals, Pi cries for losing his friend and companion through his adventure.

Pi is then questioned in the hospital by the insurance company, who wanted to know why and how the freighter capsized. After Pi tells them the story, tiger and carnivore island included, they don’t believe him. He then told them “another” story, where he ended up on the boat with his mother, a sailor and the ship’s cook. The cook ends up killing his mother and the sailor and Pi kills the cook, ending up alone. This story they buy. As he finishes telling his story, in actual times, to the writer, he asks him: “Which story do you prefer?” and the writer says: “The one with the tiger” to which Pi says: “Thank you”

That’s when the movie, and presumably the book, wants you to make a choice: Which story do you prefer?; Was the story of the tiger the true one or was this made up, or dreamed up by Pi? Of course everyone wants to believe the tiger story.

I the end, I have to say enjoyed the overall story line  the music, the cinematography. I liked both old and young Pi. The computerised tiger was nothing short of remarkable. But I sincerely think that the movie failed in expanding on the inner search of Pi for the existence of God. Yes, this is mentioned, but something else could have been done. It seems that the director wanted to expand more on the unusual relationship between boy and tiger, surviving together against all odds. Maybe it was the author’s focal point the whole time, and I was expecting something else.

For me, an enjoyable night at the movies that lacked a bit of punch to make it a truly remarkable cinematic experience.

This is, at least, my opinion, and I could be wrong.