I caught up to Life of Pi (2012) last night, courtesy of Netflix. Director Ang Lee was born and raised in Taiwan and came to America to study film in 1978. His works are diverse, always interesting, even those that fail. He has given us a great portrait of a Taiwanese family in Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), a fine adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1995), a chilling look at the sexual and moral climate in American suburbia in The Ice Storm (1997), a Chinese mythology epic in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), a couple of westerns, comics hero Hulk (2003) and others. In LoP, based on the novel by Yann Martel, he tackles mortality and faith. The bulk of the story has the hero, the only survivor of a shipwreck, sharing a lifeboat with a Tiger and other animals. As expected in this age of CGI, the effects are spectacular, the cinematography stunning. Although I enjoyed it, I was not engrossed or moved. Going in, I expected pop theology, new age religious interpretation, and that is basically what is communicated, although the film’s heart is always in the right place and the ideas are never overbearing. I am pretty much indifferent to animals, other than viewing a cute picture in emails friends send me, so such a work is not geared toward me. My fascination is the human animal. Fortunately, there is enough in that vein in the film to maintain the interest of those not fascinated by the animal world. I always enjoy seeing actors for the first time. It gives a work a freshness. There are no preconceived notions of the players to taint the portrait. Everyone in the cast was unfamiliar to me but French legend Gerard Depardieu, who has a brief role as a nasty cook, filling preconceived notions. Depardieu has 202 titles listed at IMDb, a remarkable total in this age, especially considering that he has appeared in only four TV productions. I suspect that Life of Pi is a work viewers will interpret in their own unique ways, according to their religious beliefs or lack thereof, more so than most films -- and that‘s a good thing, although in the end it merely furthers than solves the great mysteries of life that frustrate mankind. Dealing with those issues is part of what the film is about. I read some of the commentary site users made and found them most interesting. The film is rated 8.1 of ten at IMDb. On a scale of five, I rate it 3.14.
Pi is an irrational number, which fascinates math freaks and confounds the rest of us. There was nothing irrational about the numbers at the floating book shop today. They were simply small, but more than enough to allow the purchase of two slices of the pie that matters most to me -- pizza. My thanks to Michael, who donated seven more books in Russian, and to Mikhail, who purchased two of them, and to the other customers and all those who welcomed me back after my stint on jury duty. It was nice to be missed. Ali Baba's gyro truck is still MIA.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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