Religion is a tough thing to base the entire thesis of your
film on because unfortunately, most people have very strong feelings on the
subject, and they aren’t very keen to the idea of having those inclinations
challenged. Usually when a film tries to
cross cultural boundaries and find the happy medium, the theological themes
become muddled and its attempt can seem half-hearted or sheepish, resulting in
a kind of generic, Hallmark greeting card spirituality. “Life of Pi”, the new
film by the always interesting—if not a tad inconstant—Chinese director Ang
Lee, tries explicitly to discuss religion and spirituality among all faiths
(including atheism) and uncharacteristically, it treats each distinct idea as
the absolute truth.
Based
on a well-regarded, bestselling novel of the same name, “Life of Pi” tells the survival
story of a young Indian boy named Pi. While still a child, he converts from
Hindu to Catholicism, and later he converts again to Muslim. Though with every
new religion, he never gives up his old deities. Rather, he simply adds new
ones to his pantheon. Because his father is the proud owner of a local zoo,
when he decides to move his family from India to Canada, they are forced to
travel by sea with all of the animals. However, when the ship sinks and Pi tragically
loses his family, he awakes to find himself on a life boat, stranded in the
ocean with a wounded zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a very large Bengal
tiger.
It
should be noted that Ang Lee has always been a director who is just as
fascinated with story as he is his visuals. From “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon”, to his moody (and much-maligned) version of “The Hulk” in 2003, to the
sprawling love story of “Brokeback Mountain”, he always brings a completely
original visual design to the story, that sets the film into the atmospheric
environment of the characters emotional and mental state. With this film he embraces 3D for the first
time, and instead of using it as a gimmick, he aims to create a painterly
dreamscape, where he never lets the audience stay in familiar visual territory.
As I
have mentioned before, the spiritual themes of this movie are overt, as are its
cultural reference points. When Pi talks about Jesus, he means the Jesus. When he prays to Krishna and
Mohamed, he worships them with the same sincerity. To some extent, this movie
is talking about religious tolerance and finding the common ground in worship,
but at the same time the story isn’t afraid to call out the contradictions in
Pi’s philosophy or challenge the whole basis of theology all together.
As it
pertains to the survival of the young protagonist, “Life of Pi” is an unusual
film, and its internal battle regarding spirituality in the face of
multiculturalism, is just as interesting as it can be frustrating for those who
might insist that a solid choice should be made. The movie’s strengths are its ambiguities and
its abstractions. So, where the movie unfortunately loses some traction is in a
ham-fisted narrative framing-device, where a skeptic journalist, who is
interviewing the older Pi as he tells story, has to reiterate and interpret the
symbolism back to the less patient members of the audience.
“Life
of Pi” is a well-intentioned, mainstream meditation on life, the universe, and
everything. And as such, for the most
part, it does its job well. I like that it doesn’t apologize for its
convictions and it’s honest about its conflictions. But if you can’t be bothered with its
big-ideas, it’s still pretty to look at, and it presents an all-aged audience with
a fairly original take on the well-worn, man vs. nature, survival-genre.
Grade: B
Originally published by the Idaho State Journal/Dec-2012
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