
In Canada, a writer visits the Indian storyteller Pi Patel and asks him to tell his life story. Pi tells the story of his childhood in Pondicherry, India, and the origin of his nickname. One day, his father, a zoo owner, explains that the municipality is no longer supporting the zoo and he has hence decided to move to Canada, where the animals the family owns would also be sold. They board on a Japanese cargo ship with the animals and out of the blue, there is a storm, follow... (Full plot summary below)
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In Canada, a writer visits the Indian storyteller Pi Patel and asks him to tell his life story. Pi tells the story of his childhood in Pondicherry, India, and the origin of his nickname. One day, his father, a zoo owner, explains that the municipality is no longer supporting the zoo and he has hence decided to move to Canada, where the animals the family owns would also be sold. They board on a Japanese cargo ship with the animals and out of the blue, there is a storm, followed by a shipwrecking. Pi survives in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a male Bengal tiger nicknamed Richard Parker. They are adrift in the Pacific Ocean, with aggressive hyena and Richard Parker getting hungry. Pi needs to find a way to survive.
Leave your thoughts about Life of Pi.
| EmpireOlly RichardsTo produce a coherent film from Martel's tricky novel would be achievement enough, but Ang Lee has extracted something beautiful, wise and, at times, miraculous. |
| Total FilmMatt MuellerA riot of saturated colour and delirious imagination, Ang Lee's adap radiates spirituality. But it's also a simple, thrilling and gently uplifting tale of a boy, a boat and a tiger. Take the plunge. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenEvery once in a long while, the right director comes across the right project at just the right moment, and things so often discordant fall into perfect harmony. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIs it real? Is this whole story real? I refuse to ask that question. Life of Pi is all real, second by second and minute by minute, and what it finally amounts to is left for every viewer to decide. I have decided it is one of the best films of the year. |
| Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyThere are always moral crosscurrents in Lee's most provocative work, but so magical and mystical is this parable, it's as if the filmmaker has found the philosopher's stone. |
| New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinPi has designed his own terrarium to keep from staring directly into the abyss. It's not denial. It's faith in something else: the transformative power of storytelling. The film is transcendent. |
| TimeRichard CorlissPi is a giant leap forward, outward and upward in expanding the resources of the evolving medium of movies. Magical realism was rarely so magical and never before so real. |
| The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMeticulous care is evident in every aspect of the film. All three actors playing Pi are outstanding. |
| The New RepublicDavid ThomsonVeteran filmmakers will warn you, don't film at sea and don't work with animals. Ang Lee built a vast tank in Taiwan and he whips up awesome storms. [However,] watching the water here is more rewarding than watching the characters. |
| KWQC-TV (Iowa)Linda CookMystical and endless as the number pi, 'The Life of Pi' works on a number of levels, all of them enchanting. |