Finally, the "unfilmable" Booker-prize winning novel has arrived, having passed through the fingers of some of this generation's most talented and artistically gifted directors, all of whom found the project too difficult to get off the ground. It finally landed in the lap of Ang Lee who has always found interesting and unique ways of approaching moribund genres; reviving kung fu movies with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, making the most cerebral comic book movie to date with Hulk and turning the western on its head with Brokeback Mountain.
For those who haven't read the book, this isn't the mix of Slumdog Millionaire and Cast Away that the marketing team would have you believe. Middle-aged Pi (Irrfan Khan) is telling his life-story to struggling author (Rafe Spall) in modern day Canada; teenage Pi (newcomer Suraj Sharma) and his family are the owners of a popular Indian zoo, but when faced with bankruptcy, Pi's father decides to move them all - animals included - via freighter ship to Canada. But one nasty storm later, the ship has sunk and Pi is alone on a lifeboat. Well, not alone exactly… also on board the lifeboat is a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena and a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. From this point on, Pi and his dwindling co-survivors come across a plethora of otherworldly sights - a luminescent sea full of neon jellyfish, an island of ferrets, a wave of flying fish - while dealing with issues like a lack of water and food.
Without a doubt, Life Of Pi is one of the most visually astounding movies of the year, or any year really. There are countless scenes that will have your jaw hanging slack at their absolute beauty, with Lee conjuring up imagery that will stick with you long after the movie is over. On top of this, Suraj Sharma is an absolute find considering he has never acted before, as the role of Pi really puts him through the ringer, both physically and emotionally.
There are some lulls when it comes to the story - the opening scenes in India are pretty but vaguely superfluous, and there's a bit of downtime between "events" on the lifeboat - while the religious allegory is a nice idea but not really delved into enough. But despite this, Life Of Pi is still a huge cinematic feat that demands to be seen on as big a screen as possible.