Life of Pi, the acclaimed novel, has been made into a movie, and a splendid movie at that.

As a novel, Life of Pi explored the inherent animalistic quality of the world alongside the morality apparent in human beings. These ideas take form in a boy named Pi who expresses his love for life by appealing to religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. His father brings the sharp hand of reason to reveal the dangerous nature of the world that Pi has been blind to. As Pi becomes more aware of his surroundings, his family decides to move to Canada, where they will sell the animals from their zoo and seek a new life. Their voyage is ruined by a storm that sinks their ship, leaving Pi on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a tiger. The animals expose Pi to the operation of the food chain. Only the tiger remains with Pi, and he must learn to live with the deadliest representation of the carnivorous world.

The film frames the story in the present, where an older Pi recounts his story to a Canadian writer, in hopes of convincing him of God's existence. The doubt of God stems from the carnivorous quality of the world, seen in the sea that "swallows" the ship. After the storm, the audience only sees a calm ocean, as if no disaster ever happened.
When the tiger is fed, Pi does not have to worry. But the return of hunger to the tiger immediately threatens his existence. Praying will not feed the tiger. Yet Pi will not kill the tiger, because of his basic morality. He believes that the tiger has a soul. His father taught him that all he sees in the tiger is a reflection of himself and nothing more. Even though Pi accepts that he only sees his reflection in the tiger, he does not dismiss the power of reflection. That means he does not dismiss the power to see in the eyes of the tiger something that is not there.

Director Ang Lee decided to bring this story to the screen using 3D cameras. Like Scorsese's Hugo, Lee seeks to use 3D to bring the audience into the story. I felt like I was looking through a window, where these events were happening just beyond my reach. The film is shot realistically, making the scenes that much more engaging to the eye. At the same time, Lee uses visual effects on the scenery to explore the religious complexity of Pi, stranded in the middle of the ocean. He captures the reflection of the sky in the ocean continuously to suggest a relationship between the two. One sees the clouds rolling underneath the boat, giving the illusion that boat is flying through space. The magnificent cinematography hints at the larger ideas of the novel, where the sky reflects on the surface of the ocean.
Suraj Sharma plays the role of the teenage Pi, and he manages to weigh the innocent aspect of his character with the aggressiveness he needs to live with the tiger. His expressions are sharply defined when he is angry, frightened and happy, making his role both moving and understandable. The adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) tells the story with a more subtle and steady expression. The difference between the two actors is that the older Pi has acquired maturity. Yet, the tension in his voice rises and his eyes redden when he recounts a part of the story that still haunts him.

Pi is both idealistic and realistic at the end of the film. He sees both how the world is and how the world could be. He does not decide which one is right. Both options are left on the table, leaving the audience to consider and to wonder what it means for an innocent boy to tame a deadly tiger.