Splatter: on FILM

Even as a small boy growing up in India, Pi was hungry for religion.

This film is gorgeous. It is also disturbing and heart-wrenching, but gorgeous. Ang Lee directs beautifully this tragic survival story.

Most of the film takes place on a lifeboat with two characters. It’s very Hemingway meets Tom Hanks that way. You miss Wilson.

The point is, you never feel safe in this film. Death waits for Pi at every turn.

A child behind me in the theater was crying through a lot of it asking her mom to take her home. The mom kept saying, “it’s not real. It’s ok.” That mom was wrong. It is real. And this movie is not okay for small children. Though he is telling the story and we know that he lives, the tiger called Richard Parker remains a wild animal with raw instincts, and many many die.

This film is packed with life lessons.

Pi is ever grateful to whatever gods he chooses to thank. I am not grateful enough to my creator God daily for my life, my very breath.

I forget that the very people and things I am most afraid of still need to be cared for. It is this care that fuels his drive to survive. If we are to survive the pitfalls of this life, we must learn to care for one another.