A reporter (Rafe Spall) learns of a fantastical story and meets with Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) to hear his version of events. Born in a zoo in French India and named after a Paris pool ("piscine") beloved by his champion swimmer uncle, young Pi (Ayush Tandon) found himself fascinated and began adopting the ways of several religions ("I was a Catholic Hindu, meaning I got to feel guilty in front of thousands of gods"). As a teen (now played by Suraj Sharma) when his family is forced to sell the zoo and travel to Canada by cargo ship with its inhabitants in tow, a devastating storm sweeps away his family and leaves him marooned on a lifeboat with a full grown Bengal tiger. "Life of Pi" is a wondrous and moving film from master filmmaker Ang Lee, who applies his deeply felt and sensitive abilities to a novel (written by Yann Martel) thought unfilmable by many and a 3D process deemed largely unpalatable. The result is a sumptuous feast, a visual wonder whose human story has moved me in a way that very few had done before.
side note: I read that Richard Parker, the tiger in the picture was almost entirely the result of computer generated imagery. While this conceit should have probably been obvious to me, it speaks to my feelings of the CGI process in that when it's done badly I don't want to see it, and when it's done splendidly I don't care to know how.
