Movie: Life of Pi
I cannot see a tiger – statue, picture or otherwise without thinking ‘Richard Parker.’I shall explain. Life of Pi is a beautiful film about, if like me, you never seemed to have read a book that actually becomes a film,* a young man’s adventures whilst stranded in the middle of an ocean. I say adventure, talking in hindsight; of course being left alone as a youngster, with just a deadly tiger for company is a nightmare. But in hindsight, as the story unfolds in the film, a huge life changer. An adventure.Pi (short for Piscine for obvious reasons) is left floating in the ocean after the ship his zoo keeping family are travelling on to Canada sinks. As it does, he goes in search of the animals to rescue them and doesn’t see his family again. All he has for company is the tiger, Richard Parker. The pictures are stunning in this wonderfully shot film and no doubt that added to the magic but it was the relationship that the boy had with the tiger that made it. On the one hand the tiger is made to kill him apart, on the other he’s the only friend he has in the world. It’s funny and scary to watch how this relationship constantly turns, with Pi keeping to his side of the lifeboat they call home but Richard Parker still always being a threat.Apart from that, he has to contend with killer whales, the absolute loneliness, the storms and the hunger. It’s not easy for a vegetarian to live out on the sea with only a tiger who wants to eat him and fish for company. But eat fish he must do in order to survive.We see some lovely animals alongside the deadly ones and being a lover of all things ape, I would have loved one or two of those to have survived, although I would have cried throughout worried for them.But was it a true story?After Pi’s rescue, we see at the end two people from the insurance company wanting to know what happened on the ship and how did Pi survive. They don’t quite believe this story that Pi survived with Richard Parker so he gives them another one involving humans. Which one to believe?I’d go with the animals.7½/10