By Jordan Beckoff 2-4-2013
“Life of Pi” is the most visually striking film of the year. And much of the credit for this Oscar-nominated production goes to Director Ang Lee. Even if you watch the film without the 3-D effects, the computer-simulated graphics for Life of Pi are an art form.
But this is not all the film has to offer. The story follows a young man named Pi. He lost his family members and the animals from their zoo in India to a shipwreck. Pi ends up in a lifeboat for weeks accompanied by a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker and the film follows their attempts at survival.
It is a story of hope, perseverance, strength, strange and beautiful love, religion and spirituality, and growth mashed up into a magical story that all ends with a thought provoking and strangely heart wrenching twist.
“Life of Pi” is a must see film. The Academy has nominated it in 11 categories for Best Picture, Best Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Film Editing and Visual Effects.
The visual beauty combined with Pi’s story uses flashback to get the viewers emotionally invested. It tugs at your heartstrings, not just for Pi, but for Richard Parker and for the broken and lost journalist. At the beginning of the story that reporter is trying to find himself and restore his faith in writing, or just the perseverance of the human spirit overall.
Director Lee had turned the renowned book by Yann Martel into this film.