We are a funny lot, us humans. What we take for granted, what we have had all our lives, we find laughable when presented in any manner but offhandedly and casually. Thrust in our faces earnestly, we laugh at it. Maybe, just maybe, it is to hide our own embarrassment at how we have corrupted this thing that we had all along, or how we never really connected to it as well as we thought we did.
The thing in question, in this case of course, is faith. Life of Pi is about faith, about God. The audience that I saw it with identified more with the atheist father and the rigid, narrow religiousness of the family rather than the questioned, tested, layered faith of the protagonist. His earnestness was laughed at.
A lot of people, were also disappointed at what they said was a "lack of story". Most of us still approach movies like we approached books and comics in our adolescence and childhood. With the expectation of a crackling, satisfying story. As we grow, we must realize this one fundamental fact. Stories are a means to an end. Stories are told to get a point across. They are explorations of themes, beliefs, philosophies with a coherent narrative to bind them together.
Life of Pi, explores and understands faith through its protagonist. It questions and reaffirms this faith. It helps that the protagonist is a calm, optimistic person, capable of seeing the positives in the situation, dwelling on not what is lost, but what was prevented from being lost. The movie is set as a story within a story and given the open ended structure incorporating elements of imagination, delusion, visions, escapism and of course, exotic zoo animals, the visuals become extremely important. And what visuals they are. the 3-D here is more than gimmicky. It serves to illustrate more than just a bullet fired at you or the action set pieces, incorporating destruction and mayhem of epic proportions. This is 3-D exploring calmness and serenity, the richness of marine life. The ocean becomes a living, breathing being, almost a character unto itself in the hands of Ang Lee and his masterful use of 3-D.
As the story draws to its conclusion, those looking for thrills and twists and outlandish set pieces might feel a little underwhelmed, but for those who are gripped by the layers of the narrative and caught up in the philosophical debate of it all, will be thrilled by the twist at the end. Without giving anything away, the moment Irrfan's character says " And so it goes with God", you are hit with a sudden realization, stunning in its simplicity. A realization poetic and ironic, for it is aimed at the thrillseekers, who will possibly miss the whole point.
The thing in question, in this case of course, is faith. Life of Pi is about faith, about God. The audience that I saw it with identified more with the atheist father and the rigid, narrow religiousness of the family rather than the questioned, tested, layered faith of the protagonist. His earnestness was laughed at.
A lot of people, were also disappointed at what they said was a "lack of story". Most of us still approach movies like we approached books and comics in our adolescence and childhood. With the expectation of a crackling, satisfying story. As we grow, we must realize this one fundamental fact. Stories are a means to an end. Stories are told to get a point across. They are explorations of themes, beliefs, philosophies with a coherent narrative to bind them together.
Life of Pi, explores and understands faith through its protagonist. It questions and reaffirms this faith. It helps that the protagonist is a calm, optimistic person, capable of seeing the positives in the situation, dwelling on not what is lost, but what was prevented from being lost. The movie is set as a story within a story and given the open ended structure incorporating elements of imagination, delusion, visions, escapism and of course, exotic zoo animals, the visuals become extremely important. And what visuals they are. the 3-D here is more than gimmicky. It serves to illustrate more than just a bullet fired at you or the action set pieces, incorporating destruction and mayhem of epic proportions. This is 3-D exploring calmness and serenity, the richness of marine life. The ocean becomes a living, breathing being, almost a character unto itself in the hands of Ang Lee and his masterful use of 3-D.
As the story draws to its conclusion, those looking for thrills and twists and outlandish set pieces might feel a little underwhelmed, but for those who are gripped by the layers of the narrative and caught up in the philosophical debate of it all, will be thrilled by the twist at the end. Without giving anything away, the moment Irrfan's character says " And so it goes with God", you are hit with a sudden realization, stunning in its simplicity. A realization poetic and ironic, for it is aimed at the thrillseekers, who will possibly miss the whole point.
