Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, if nothing else, shows us what can and cannot be done well with computer-generated imagery. The film is an adaptation of Yann Martel’s wildly popular 2001 novel. It tells the story of a young man, Pi (Suraj Sharma), who becomes lost at sea on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The story is told in flashbacks by Pi as he recounts his harrowing tale to a young writer. It begins with his childhood in Pondicherry, India where his father was the owner of the city’s zoo. Young Pi has a happy childhood in which he explores the mysteries of Christianity and Islam as well as his own Hindu faith.
As Pi approaches adulthood, his father decides to sell the zoo and move the family to Canada. They set out by ship with their animals. One night out in the Pacific, the ship encounters a storm and sinks. Pi manages to reach a lifeboat and is seemingly the only human survivor. The next morning, he discovers that the lifeboat has other passengers. In addition to the lame zebra that leapt onto to boat with him, there’s also Richard Parker and a nasty hyena. The group grows to five when an orangutan is picked up off of floating debris.
The number of passengers quickly dwindles as carnage ensues on the small vessel. Soon only Pi and Richard Parker remain. The two develop an uneasy truce as they settle in for their long struggle for survival. They drift for weeks on the vast Pacific, enduring many hardships but they eventually reach the Mexican cost. Richard Parker staggers off into the forest while Pi is rescued by local fishermen.
There’s a twist in the tale at the conclusion of the story, which throws much of what happened before into doubt. In the end, all we know for sure is that Pi survived and instead of being embittered by his agonizing journey, he maintains his hope and optimism.
I don’t recall ever seeing so much computer-generated imagery in a live-action film before. One could probably make the argument that Life of Pi is actually an animated film with live footage. Richard Parker is of course animated, as is much of the mighty Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants. The CG is very well executed. I found myself constantly straining to figure out where the actual footage ended and the CG began. Despite coming from a photography background and being loyal to the old ways of creating moving images, I have to admit that this film is visually impressive.
Where the movie falls down is in it’s emotional content. The sensitive and skilled Lee tried to evoke feeling from the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker but it didn’t come off for me. I believe this is due to the limitations of an on-screen relationship in which one of the parties is a computer-generated image and a feline one at that. Perhaps a more talented and experienced actor could have pulled it off. I’m reminded of the relationship that Tom Hanks’ character formed with a volleyball in Cast Away but ultimately I think it’s too heavy a load for the human character to carry alone.
In conclusion, I’m heartened by Life of Pi. Not only is it an uplifting story of perseverance in the face of great adversity but it also leaves me confident that there will always be a desire to see real actors photographed in film.
No comments:
Post a Comment