"Which story do you prefer?" A film review from a literary perspective
Wow, this has been an exciting fall for literary adaptations! I read Yann Martel's Life of Pi a decade ago and thought it was fantastic storytelling. I cheered when it won the Man Booker Prize. So, I was quite excited to attend an advance screening recently with several members of my book group. I remembered the novel quite well in broad strokes, but not the fine detail. I didn't refresh my memory before watching the film, but was curious enough to reread Life of Pi in its entirety before writing this review. The film is very true to the novel in spirit and tone, but there are small changes, additions (generally positive), and elisions (some noteworthy).
The film opens similarly to the novel. The idea is the same, but the execution is slightly different. Different mediums require different storytelling tools. For instance, I believe most film-goers will readily recognize The Writer (portrayed by actor Rafe Spall, who replaced a distractingly famous Toby Maguire) as...
Beauty and Spirit, Both Beyond Words
This may be the hardest movie review I've ever written, somehow words don't
express it quite right ...
To begin, I saw Life of Pi in 3-D. A week later I went back and saw it again,
because I don't foresee having another chance. I expect the color and detail
will remain gorgeous in 2-D, and I definitely intend to buy the disc.
However the 3-D in this movie is spectacular. The tiger, Richard Parker, is
at the top of the list, but in fact the entire movie benefits tremendously
from 3-D. If you liked Avatar, you probably liked the marvelous animals.
And I'm sure in some scenes, Richard Parker is CGI'd to some extent. But
Life of Pi has a real earthly animal to work with, and you can argue there
is no animal on earth more beautiful or fierce than a tiger. That's part
of the genius of this movie, and I'm sure one reason James Cameron liked
it so much.
That brings me to another point about this movie, its...
A must-see masterpiece of the beauty of being alive
Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a masterpiece with some of the most beautiful and unforgettable images ever displayed on film. Not only did it give me an experience of the wonder in being alive while moving me to tears, but its story also encompassed a human life from childhood to mature age while dealing with pain and guilt that are part of the human experience.
Ang Lee isn't thought of as an Asian auteur in the class of Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou or Lee Chang-dong. He's actually more of a commercial director than a personal artist, but what he does in transferring the "Life of Pi" from novel to screen is miraculous. Perhaps no director has ever captured the beauty and fear of the power of life, and when you look deep into the eyes of the tiger "Richard Parker", you see what Marlowe saw in Kurtz's eyes in Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness": a power so vast it dwarfs you with an awareness of your mortality, showing you your insignificance beside the powers of all life. What Ang...
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