Life of Pi (movie and book)

Just a heads up to anyone who hasn't yet read Life of Pi by Yann Martel - with the movie coming out in December, now is the time to do so. You won't be sorry!

It's one of my favorite books ever, and the illustrated edition is especially gorgeous and magical. Ang Lee's movie looks great, but really people, read the book first.

Who's with me?
Movie trailer

---

Well seeing as it's an Ang Lee movie based on a much-lauded book released in Oscar season, I don't think it'll be THAT surprising. Once it comes out, y'all'll be sorry you haven't read the book first.

Unless of course you have, in which case, carry on.

---

I have always been in the minority on this book. I hated the book. I mean HATED. I thought it was beyond boring and too long. I am interested to see how they will go about adapting it to the screen though.

---

It was one of those books where i would read 100 pages and nothing would happen. They were on the boat. On the boat some more... 70 pages later they are STILL on the boat. And nothing even happened on the boat.

---

This sounds really pissy, but Hook how will it surprise everyone? It's directed by a beloved, award winning director (despite the indifference and even hate for his muddled last film Taking Woodstock, and the mixed reaction to Love, Caution), and is based on a book that was something of a pop culture phenomenon. It's true that often, even that combination, can fail, but it seems like one of themore sure bets to me.

Anyway, the trailer *does* look great, and apparently the 10 minute 3D preview they had recently "blew everyone away" and also had people talking about how this is one of the first really emotional ways of using 3D.

I think it looks great, and can't wait. But, I'm kinda with Jordan. I've resisted the book. I read maybe 50 pages and just couldn't move on. I suspect some of that is just being snobby (the book has been foisted on me more often, by more random friends, than any modern book I can think of), and I also suspect if I would just stick through it another 100 pages or so I would get into it but... It just put me off, as a reading experience. (Jay-Lerner, the fact you recommend it so highly does speak volumes though, I think you have terrific taste, and taste that often is the same as mine).

But I definitely will see the movie.

I haven't seen anything from the trailer, but I really wasn't a fan of the book when I had to read it for high school (which, I admit, could account for my dislike of it). I thought there were some interesting parts, but ultimately I found it way too dense and couldn't make much sense of the thing. I also remember the ending pissing me off, for some reason.

---

I read (and liked) Life of Pi when it first came out, and I re-read it a few months ago knowing that the movie version was coming out this year. I could see how some people might find it tiresome, as not a whole lot happens in the book (the father sells the zoo, the ship sinks and Pi is stranded on the lifeboat for several months). It will be interesting to see if audiences can sit through a film with an unknown Indian star that takes place primarily on a small boat in the middle of the ocean. I'm a bit wary myself as Richard Parker (the tiger) looks awfully ferocious in the trailer (but ferocious in a CGI-fake tiger way), and I somehow imagine the story being more "realistic" and less made-for-3D 'let's have the tiger lunge at the audience and scare them.'

Barack and Malia Obama have read Life of Pi and enjoyed it.

Note: this Reuters article has a SPOILER in the last sentence.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/11/10/us-obama-book-idUSTRE5A905H20091110

---

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 06:31 AM

I love that Obama sent Yann Martel a handwritten note expressing his admiration - in stark contrast to Stephen Harper of Canada who ignored the author for over a year, even though he was mailing him second-hand books (to educate him) on a weekly basis.

Even though I personally love the book, I'm unlikely to over-ride any gut feelings y'all may have - but if you're on the fence, it really is worth checking out the illustrated edition which features a bounty of beautiful pictures by Tomislav Tornijac. It really adds to the experience, and the book itself is a real objet d'art - the kind that kindle can't compete with. Get thee to your local library.

Okay, that's enough evangelizing for now.

(And Eric, why thank you - you have exquisite taste too, if I may say. )




Life of Pi illustrations

---

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 10:23 PM

>>> I was wondering if they had initially planned to illustrate the alternate story Pi tells at the end. It seemed odd to use Gerard Depardieu for one ~30 second scene.

I wondered that, too. But on reflection, I think that it was best that we don't see it.

I quite liked the film, but didn't love it. Similarly, I quite liked the novel, but didn't love it.

I do think that it was an excellent adaptation of the novel, and props should be given to Ang Lee and the technical and creative team behind the film.

I did find that I came to a greater understanding of the themes of the book having watched the film.

It's a wonderfully creative film based on a contemporary literary novel. Let's hope the movie-going audience is more intelligent than we give them credit for and the film does well.

---

My partner was all gung ho about this and I went along for the ride and we both left a little underwhelmed. Yes, it has many visually stunning moments (although I found some coming off as "oh look what we can do" impressed with itself) and the actor playing the teenage Pi was superb, overall it left me cold.

The religious message I came away with was basically accepting whichever story sounds best to you. Kinda like "Book of Mormon's" believing "just 'cause." Not sure that that's what the makers of "Pi" were going for.

No other movie has propelled me out of the auditorium as this one did. I've left movies before they were over before, mostly because my mind was preoccupied with dozens of things I'd rather be doing other than waiting around for the dullness or stupidity to end.

But this one was something else entirely. I did have to take a leak, which is something I haven't left a movie to do in about 30 years, but once I was out of there, I felt such relief, and not just because I peed but because I needed a BREAK. I guess the movie completely stressed me out. I found myself not wanting to go back in the theater, and lingered outside the door for as long as a I could until I thought my boyfriend would be worried that something had happened to me. Plus my coat was in there. I don't really remember how far I had gotten before I had to get out, but by the time I went back in, the Meerkat Manor section was beginning. I never put the 3D glasses back on and waited for the thing to conclude. I would have rolled my eyes at the big reveal inside of the plant on the island, by my eyeballs were already throbbing from the 3D glasses. Come to think of it, I wish we hadn't seen it in 3D, even though Roger Ebert (notorious 3D hater) said it was totally worth it.

Important things I learned: I do NOT like to see the depiction of animals in distress, even if it is clear that they are created using the modern, upgraded process that created the lion in "Bedknobs & Broomsticks." I am not a fan of parables being literalized, I love it on stage in the grand tradition of story telling, but now that ANYTHING can be depicted because computers are making movies, I don't trust the motives behind what is being created. All storytellers manipulate us, but when the computer can create a suffering, injured zebra it hits me somewhere in my brain that sees it as a real animal (because that is the way our brains are wired) and I have to say, I really hate Ang Lee (of all people) getting in there and futzing with the wiring in my head. Some things are parables that do not need to be literally depicted, they are just meant to be told in book form or told from one person or another, and having two stand-ins frame the story does NOT count.

---

Updated On: 12/1/12 at 12:21 AM

I finished the book and, nearly, loved it. I had a few issues with the opening and ending--I guess the framing, but it was a great read. I have no idea why I found it so hard to get through before--I'm slogging my way through a 25 page essay on Brokeback Mountain and masculinity on screen and print, so maybe it was just nice to have a change of pace. I plan on seeing the movie this week! Thanks Jay--I don't think I would have plunged back into the novel without this thread.

Namo - I have the same issue with the depiction of animals in distress. I took some small comfort from the fact that Ang Lee minimized that depiction: the book was so horrific that I actually stopped reading at that point, and I have had trouble getting back to finish the book.

The CGI Bengal tiger is the most amazing work I have ever seen, and I got emotional at least twice during the movie (at obvious plot points) but the story seemed to be a little dry in the beginning, especially for my companion who had not read the book. The meerkat island seemed terribly contrived, although there had to be some source of food and water to keep the survivors going, I guess.