What did they do right? They took their time.*Spoilers ahead* The most thrilling part of the story, from a film perspective, would be the shipwreck followed by Pi's fight to survive with a shipwrecked tiger. But the filmmakers didn't start with that, and they didn't rush to get there. I was pleasantly surprised by how long an introduction we get to the character and his family. And it wasn't just the bare bones either, we were given fun details, the little quirks and stories of a person's life that makes them who they are. A lot of it could have been deemed unnecessary, we are introduced to a love interest whose plot line doesn't play past the first act, the story of how he got his name and the teasing he endured for it has no specific importance later on. Yet what this all does is give the story meat and heart. And by the time we get this character stranded in the open ocean with almost nothing to interact with we feel like we know him.
Before I saw the movie I was wondering how they were going to choose to tell the story. When we are introduced to Pi as a grown man from the start I figured, oh he'll narrate the story, it makes sense that they'd do that, it's easier that way. I was a little disappointed, I felt like narration was a bit of a cop-out. But then to my surprise as soon as the shipwreck came and Pi was lost at sea, the narration from grown Pi stopped. From there until the very tail end of the story, the visuals told the story, with the occasional help from young Pi's in-the-moment narration. Is it weird to say I was proud of the movie makers? Well I was. They chose the slightly more difficult story telling method, but it made the film so much more impactful. The isolation of the open sea felt that much more real by not having an outside voice telling us what was happening.
Speaking of isolation, this movie did a great job of making the audience feel like they were adrift. Again, the story takes it time. The audience isn't rushed form one event to another, we get to languish on little tragedies. We see things played out long enough that we feel like we are out on that boat with Pi. And we are never taken out of the moment with flashbacks, we are stuck out on that ocean, just like Pi. that's another storytelling choice I'm glad was used.
Lastly a shout out to the actor, the CG tiger, and the visuals. I heard that the actor for Pi had never acted before and it showed, in a good way. I felt like there was more realism from his performance because nothing felt too staged or too over thought, his performance felt very natural. The CG tiger was fantastic! The amount of detail put into that animation blew my mind. I'll restrain myself from ranting for several more pages and just say "well done!". Lastly, the visuals. Wow. Beautiful and at times surreal, it really set the mood for this type of story.
I can't explain why but watching the movie felt the same as reading the book. I wasn't being told a story, I was experiencing the story.
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