The Circus Reviews Life of PI (film) – A Big Fat A

Life of PI (film): A

Man. Man oh man. Man wouldn’t I like to shake Ang Lee’s hand? The achievement he has made with Life of Pi will probably never be accurately realized by any mainstream audience though some critics of the film HAVE caught on to how special it is. I am sure there will be many deserving movies that will win this award season…but, I truly feel that Life of Pi will exceed them because it transcends any set standard in the case of cinema and what it takes to FILM an experience– from its 3D technology to its daring attempt at filming this story. However one precursor to appreciating this film in its entirety is, of course, reading the book first.

That isn’t to say it’s perfect. It achieves as much as any movie COULD achieve with this story — and that is why reading the book first is so important…it fills in those necessary gaps that no camera could explain.

Any fan of the novel probably treated the rumors of Life of Pi, the movie, with suspicion. I did myself. You can’t study the book and see it being something linear or transparent (which every movie in some way must be to be marketable).  The STORY of Life of Pi is incredibly complex and organized behind a very unique stream of consciousness, contained in the frame of the author’s note, the narrative….and I couldn’t imagine HOW anyone would be able to manage to film the story of a boy in a lifeboat alone with 4 wild animals…

That’s all that happens….how could it ever be interesting to the masses?

However, Ang Lee didn’t treat Life of Pi like a traditional story, and because he came to it withe absolute respect and ingenuity, what he did paid off. He created a canvas of water and built philosophical pieces through creating a REAL LIFE Richard Parker…so believable that you never question the truth of what is happening…of course, not until the end.

He is subtle. You don’t come away from the movie thinking … “that was a great movie…”

You come away from it thinking… “That was such an amazing STORY.”  Story — the heart of a story. For Life of Pi, that distinction is the whole friggin’ point.

This is achieved through unreal cinematography. UNREAL. The use of the ocean, color, contrast, and light truly is more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. This is no gimick like Avatar and every other movie that comes with a “visually stunning” accolade. I am afraid this reality through virtual canvas is what Peter Jackson WANTED with The Hobbit, but lost sight of in its quest to be technologically forward thinking. Ang Lee never calls attention to the beauty of the CG…he merely lets it exist and play out as we try to piece Pi’s story together. It was perfect.

Life of Pi is about perception, loss, and projection. We project our own emotions, our own will to survive — to live on the constructs created around us. We WANT to believe that animals are like us — human. We WANT to believe that our gods are like us. We WANT to believe.

Ang Lee was able to deduce the most important messages of Life of Pi for the film and that projection of our own wants, our own desires in the construct of belief and survival were well played out in this film. Reading the book will set that stage for you perfectly. Life of Pi is chalked full of big ideas…and the essentials are there in the movie.

We look in Richard Parker’s eyes, and we see that desperation — I will never forget that scene where Richard Parker is desperately trying to return to the lifeboat and it is up to Pi to either save him or let him drown. That look in the Tiger’s eyes is so Real.

THAT moment is Life of Pi. Ang Lee created the experience for us in that 10 second scene. As we looked down on the tiger, we saw ourselves — and we had to save him…we had to believe that he wanted to be saved.

That projection of our own feelings…that chord within us is what fuels the greatest stories of our age. We pull together our psyches and write, read, and love stories because we see ourselves within them. We process truth THROUGH them.

Pi’s commitment to three separate religions is proof of this. He finds god in each one — or attribute of what he WANTS out of god in each one. Rather than see division as detrimental, he sees diversity as clarity and sees each story of god as something to deduce truth from.

I am getting close to spoiling, but don’t worry. I wont reveal the end, though I have hinted at it — but the last pages of the novel and last 10 minutes of the Film are hugely, hugely important to the overall construct of Yann Martel/Ang Lee’s story. What you learn there can seem confusing, but really all it is is PROOF of what you have come to believe.

That with life, religion, reason, and doubt — we all must make a choice. Life of Pi is about choice too and which story you choose to believe.

and so it goes with god.

Read Full Post »

The Circus Reviews Great House by Nicole Krauss – B-

Great House by Nicole Krauss : B-

I am almost ashamed to say that I was sadly disappointed in Nicole Krauss’ second novel. After reading and admiring A History of Love, I held high hopes for a similar, though different, work that dealt with sorrow, trauma, and love – but was unable to truly connect with the inter-weaving narratives sprinkled throughout. Perhaps what made A History of Love so successful was the undercurrent of humor, innocence, and wonder encased through Alma’s narrative consciousness. In Great House, there is no such contrast to the sorrowful elegy of narration — it’s just self conscious loneliness, heart ache, and sadness for sadness’ sake — and I just got tired of it.

There is no doubt that Krauss is an immensely talented crafter of words, narration, and expressive metaphors that construct complex ideas. There are beautiful moments that made the read overall worth the experience. However, as a whole — I was not fully immersed or convinced of the novels overall purpose and message. I found that development of each individual narration immature and frankly a little boring — and those over arching themes that should have brought the House together…still felt disconnected and rudimentary. It was just all a big meh-fest for me.

It seems in our “post-modern” world, we have become obsessed with the disconnecting parts. Maybe we can attribute it to our love for Quentin Tarantino movies…our inheritance from Faulkner and Wolfe, and the success of so many recent novels like A History of Love, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Cloud Atlas, etc, that interweave and connect what appears to be varying consciousnesses together under one roof to construct and navigate a central theme. Yet this is a delicate balance that has to be treated with caution. Though, Krauss tells her stories very beautifully, they still felt like empty rooms without any sort of connecting pathway. It wasn’t a house for me — it was just a shell.

Immediately I disliked the first narrator, Nadia. She felt fake to me — and overly consequential. From there, it was an ongoing orchestra of half formed characters with half formed missions, with occasional thoughts that provoked a small sliver of emotion.

This novel, ironically, is without a foundation.

Perhaps there were elements that went over my head. I’m sure that there is still a lot of integrity here to admire, but a short novel like this should not take nearly 4 months to read. I found it a chore.

However, there was an admirable variation between the voices — and that is another feat that is not easy to pull off. I did see how Krauss was able to articulate different types of philosophies on sorrow, and how it affected and defected the lives of her narrators in varying ways.

But — that’s just it. It was all despair without triumph, all sadness without a twist of humor, and just an overall pity party for everyone involved.

In this day in age, we need a novel that just doesn’t make us sad — it makes us inspired to change what we have lost, to make a meaning out of what we have gone through.

And Great House seemed to fail in that respect.

Overall, I have given this a B- because I do feel like there was talent displayed, but overall a missing of the mark. I’ll still wait in anticipation for whatever Nicole Krauss writes next, because I believe she has it in her — to write a show stopper, a generation definer, a great, great Novel for our generation and the ones to come.

Read Full Post »