A disclaimer before I begin: I make no claim to be a book nor film reviewer. If you measure this by those terms, this will suck. These are just some rambling, airy fairy thoughts and feelings. As thought and felt by me.
A few months ago I read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I won't claim that it changed my life, because I'm not (completely) insane. But given the story's basis in spirituality and religion, I suppose ol' heathenly me didn't expect to fall in love with it quite the way I did. One Bengal tiger plays a central role, so that may have had something to do with my response. Crazy Cat Lady at your service. But also, since reading it, and re-reading it, and sharing it with friends (read: forcing it upon them), I've also come to appreciate the story as a reminder. Sometimes, my staunch non-religious point of view aside, I should forget my head and my logic, and try to have a little bit of faith.
Without giving too much away - because I want everyone in the universe to read it immediately and report back for Enforced Book Club discussions, I happily accepted the whole story at face value... until The Twist. And even though it's just a story (I get it, I promise I haven't lost the plot), when I had the option to make a choice about what to believe, I went with faith. Pi 'tells his story' to the author - a story it is supposed will make him believe in God. Pi's story didn't make me believe in God, but at this point in my old age I don't think anything will. I do have to admit though, that it kind of made me want to believe in something.
I saw Ang Lee's film adaptation last night (in 2D I might add - these old eyes don't cope so well with 3D and hey, there's a lot to be said for simplicity right?) and it was beautiful. The storyline isn't 100% there, but when is it ever with book-to-screen adaptation? In my opinion they got the important stuff right. With some... less important additions which didn't annoy me so much as seem unnecessary. I maintain if I hadn't read and loved the book first I still would have enjoyed the movie-version as it's an excellent story in both formats. A real page-turner or... visual feast, as they say. The depiction of 1970s Pondicherry was stunning (Indian vacay, anyone?), Suraj Sharma is perfect as Pi, and the special effects were superb - the changing colours and moods of the watery landscape in particular. Naturally I, Crazy Cat Lady, can pinpoint the moment that I fell in love with a swimming digital tiger. And the meerkats weren't bad either (schnooks!)
This isn't a typical Happily Ever After, which is fine by me. But it's way more than a story about a boy and a tiger spending 227 days in a lifeboat. I haven't enjoyed a book (and subsequent movie adaptation) this much since The Lovely Bones - and that thing got read to death, sobbed over in sobriety and not-so-sobriety (long story) and then read some more. So... read Life of Pi, watch it, both... it. Then talk to me about it please. I love talking about it. Have you noticed?
no.
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