OR: A STORY THAT WILL MAKE YOU BELIEVE IN GOD
Is there some sort of trend going on? A year ago we had Hugo, a 3D movie released late in the year for Academy Award consideration. The main character of Hugo was a nine-year-old boy. This year we have Life of Pi, a 3D movie again released late in the year for Academy Award consideration. This time the protagonist is a teenager. Are we going to have more and more films with child heroes? That might not be bad, actually, for just as last year's Hugo was a gem, this year's Life of Pi is also a high-quality picture.
The vast majority of us probably encountered the concept of pi in high school math classes. We may remember that pi expresses the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter and is a transcendental number: It has the value of 3.1415926 to seven decimal places, but the digits repeat ad infinitum. It could be said that, just as the value of pi is infinite, God is infinite and transcendent. And somewhere therein lies this story of first a boy, then a teenager, and then a man named Piscine Molitor Patel, or Pi for short.
As the story opens, the grown-up Pi is seated in his living room talking with a British writer who has come all the way to Canada because he has heard that Pi has a story that will make him believe in God. It seems that when Pi was quite young his family lived in France and Pi was given the name Piscine Molitor ("piscine" is French for "swimming pool"), a moniker which caused him considerable grief because his classmates deliberately mispronounced the word. This forced the boy to assert that his real and proper name was "pi," as in the mathematical concept. The family eventually returns to India, and when Pi is a teenager they decide to emigrate to Canada. Pi's father owns and administers a zoo and, wanting to sell the animals, engages ship passage across the Pacific. Shortly after the voyage is under way, however, a colossal storm destroys the ship, and everyone is lost except Pi and four of the zoo animals: a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and (most significantly) a tiger named Richard Parker. The hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan, and then Richard Parker dispatches the hyena. Only Pi and the tiger are left on a lifeboat to survive the Pacific Ocean.
Thus the stage is set for the meat of Life of Pi: Pi's voyage with Richard Parker across the vast ocean. And what a voyage it is. Pi the teenager must become constantly vigilant and resourceful. Discovering a manual that instructs him about survival in the lifeboat, he manages to cobble together all manner of devices to keep himself and the tiger alive. He constructs a raft that he attaches to the lifeboat since it is not safe for him to be in close proximity to the ferocious Richard Parker. He finds ways to collect fresh water and to capture flying fish that sustain both himself and his feline companion. As the days and nights wear on, Pi slowly begins to succeed in his quest to love and to tame the tiger, who would no doubt devour the boy if he got too close. Eventually, though, the available food supply dwindles, and Pi and Richard Parker become weakened by their desperate need for nourishment. In one near-heartbreaking scene, Pi sits with Richard Parker and lovingly caresses and comforts him. Miraculously, they run aground on an unknown but mysterious island populated by hundreds of meerkats and containing plenty of fresh water. They are saved, at least for the present.
But now we return to the central question of this film: how is it that this story will make the British writer (and by extension any nonbeliever) believe in God? Pi had begun his spiritual life as a practitioner of Hinduism. One day when he was a young child, however, his brother dared him to drink some holy water in a Catholic church. Pi did so and was immediately confronted by the priest of the church, who didn't punish him but instead told him of the love of Jesus Christ. Pi came to believe in Christianity and eventually to describe himself as a "Catholic Hindu." Later in his childhood he embraced Islam for a time. But here's a potential problem: Could we say that, since Pi's spirituality is "all over the place," the film really espouses the heretical idea that "in their different ways, all religions lead to God"? I don't think so. The story seems fundamentally Christian, as we see played out in Pi's personal relationship with God and his surrender to Him. In one quintessential scene, Pi, seemingly at the end of his rope, stands on the lifeboat and screams out to God, "What more do you want of me?"
Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee and based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martel, cost about $120 million to make. Director Lee was involved in the project for almost four years. Much of the filming was done in Taiwan at an abandoned airport where a gigantic wave tank was constructed in which to film the ocean scenes. The majority of the scenes involving animals are computer-generated but nonetheless look completely real. The acting is superb, particularly the roles of the adult Pi, played by Irrfan Khan, and that of the 16-year-old Pi, played by newcomer Suraj Sharma, who was selected from about 3,000 applicants in India. Sharma had not acted professionally before and wasn't even going to try out but was only accompanying his brother to the audition. Nevertheless, he got the part.
Life of Pi is unlike any other movie and is a real credit to cinema. You owe it to yourself to see it.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 ½ stars Highly Recommended
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