Movie Review: 'Life of Pi'

by Brian Kesler 

5/5 stars

WARNING: Spoilers Abound

There are two basic stories about the creation of life. In one, life began with a single celled organism that separated in two. In the other, God created Adam, and from Adam's rib created Eve. They are both true. One story represents the factual truth, but the other provides an emotional connection to the creation of life.

The underlying message of 'Life of Pi' is that, while religious text and belief might be impossibly fantastical, it provides a fuller, more emotional understanding of life and the human spirit. The film accomplishes this through a "plot twist" that may leave some viewers let down. But it is the pivotal moment in understanding the underlying thematic core of the character and his journey of survival.

The film opens with our protagonist revealing the story of how he took on his name: Pi. He took the name after the irrational mathematical number used to measure the distance in a circle. The number has so many decimal places that it is nearly impossible for the human mind to comprehend, which is why the number is represented by a symbol and often shortened to a comprehensible three digits. This sets the story up, symbolically, and foreshadows the nature of the story we are about to see.

Pi and his family are traveling from their native India, where they owned and operated a zoo, to Canada, with many of the zoo animals on board for sale in America. A storm hits and the boat sinks, killing Pi's family, and the entire crew of the ship. The only surviving members are Pi and a few of the zoo animals, who congregate on a life boat. The animals include a zebra, an orangutang, and a hyena. Pi witnesses the hyena attack and kill the zebra and, eventually, the orangutang. Then, suddenly, a tiger emerges from a clandestine section of the life boat and kills the hyena. The rest of the film involves Pi struggling for survival in the middle of the Pacific and setting up territorial dominance over the tiger, eventually leading to peace between the two.

With the wrong director, this film could have been a bombastic blockbuster with no soul, but the poetic quietude of Ang Lee gives the film an emotional current which propels the adventures of Pi and his tiger, whose name is Richard Parker, to a more substantial level. The visual impact of the film is truly wondrous. Since the 1960s, color in film has not been a major factor in story development, but with the influence of Pixar, and their invention of the color script, the use of color in film has become a distinguishing factor in the filmmaking trends of the new decade. Color is used here to heighten Pi's journey and to establish important plot developments. It's also just awesome to look at. The isolation of Pi and the dynamic between he and Richard Parker are represented by the merging mirror reflection of sky and sea.

This reflection is symbolically important. When Pi finally reaches the Mexican shore and recovers, he is asked to recount his journey. His story is met with skepticism and disapproval, and he is pressured to tell the "truth." Pi, then, tells another story - one in which some of the crew members of the ship, and his mother, were on the life boat with him and horrors ensued. From Ang's directorial directness, we know that this new story is actually what happened, and that the story we've invested ourselves in was only invented by Pi as a way to overcome the harsh realities of his actual journey - just like the number 3.14 is represented by a symbol as the complexity of the number surpasses human comprehension. In the context of understanding the reality of what happened, the tiger represents a dimension of Pi's character: his anger, his impatience, his animalistic simplicity. These are all things Pi must overcome. To survive, he must discipline himself and learn to control his emotional insecurity. This is represented by Pi's efforts to tame Richard Parker.

By the end of the film, an adult Pi asks a listener, whom he had conveyed both stories, which one he preferred. The listener draws parallels between the two stories and, after a thought, firmly confirms that he prefers the story with the tiger. It is important to note that Pi regards both stories as the truth. One is the factual truth, while the other is the thematic truth. Just like the story of the creation of life, we are more emotionally invested in the thematic truth, because of the parallels and underlying symbolism. 'Life of Pi' is one of the best films of the year.