Now I’ve been a math guy as long as I can remember …so imagine my disappointment when this film ended.
Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) is just your average teenage Indian kid whose family owns a zoo and moves to Canada. In case it isn’t clear, the animals are coming, too. Santosh’s Ark finds high seas adventure and Pi finds himself game warden of a lifeboat featuring himself, a tiger, a hyena, a chimp, a rat and a zebra with a broken leg. The zebra jumping off the sinking vessel was an impressive element of this fantasy. Naturally, we’re down to tiger and human before long. And that’s your film – a boy and his tiger afloat on the ocean.
Now if you’re going on a boat trip, I really suggest something a little bigger, with maybe a crew, food, entertainment maybe, some indoor plumbing would be 
nice, and, oh yeah — leave the tiger behind next time!
Life of Pi is the struggle of boy and his tiger, both literally and figuratively. It is also the struggle for the audience to make sense of what they see while understanding that there’s only going to be one speaking character on screen for, seemingly, hours at a time. This film will remind you a bunch of Cast Away, with an emphasis on the spiritual and visual and a de-emphasis on the plotting and acting. Life of Pi fully embraces the idea that the tale might be simple metaphor and, in fact, presents an alternative reality for us to decide what is true.
It’s not every movie that can pull off having one speaking character on screen. You don’t have to agree that this is one of them, but either way, Life of Pi is a gorgeous film, a masterpiece of art direction. Then again, Toys had just about the best art direction I’ve ever seen. Hmmm. Look, this isn’t for everybody. You may not be the audience suited for this film, but aren’t you curious about a guy surviving in a row boat in the ocean tethered to a hostile jungle animal? No? Fine, go see your vampire-werewolf-ennui love triangle.
Piscine lost at sea with a tiger for a pal
Survival is a concept most universal
Is this life charmed or maybe divine?
The answer: easy as 3.14159 …
Rated PG, 125 Minutes
D: Ang Lee
W: David Magee
Genre: Boat trip
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Tigers fans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Extroverts
