Last weekend I saw something rarer than a unicorn: a movie based on a book that doesn’t disappoint!
I loved Life of Pi when I read it. I mean, who wouldn’t? Shipwrecks and tigers and floating acid islands full of funny little mammals! So I was therefore hesitant about the movie, even though previews looked gorgeous.
Worse, husband wanted to see it in 3D, which I think is generally gimmicky and unnecessary. Plus, 3D hurts my nose. See, I wear glasses, so a 3D movie means wearing two pairs of glasses, and they rarely line up quite right, so then I have to tie them together with hair ties. And even so they sit heavily on my face. When we saw Avatar, my nose ached for hours afterward. I know I can’t be the only one with this problem; I’d be interested in hearing other glasses-wearers’ solutions.
But anyway, at the end of Life of Pi only my eyes hurt, and that was from crying. The movie was so well made that everything else faded into the background. I was only occasionally aware of the 3D, or the lousy service and terrible food at the theatre (one of those food-serving theatres), or anything else. The story was all that mattered.
This is a great adaptation. Everything I remembered (with only tiny exceptions) made it into the film, and without it turning into an epic. I think it’s about two hours long. The main character, Richard Parker (the tiger), looked so good that it was easy to forget he wasn’t real. The human actors were also great, pulling off wrenching scenes.
Just go see it. It won’t even ruin the book for you. Tigers! Shipwrecks! Crazy cannibalistic islands!
* Note: there are no unicorns in the book or the movie. Or this blog post.