Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "The Life of Pi"

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies:  "The Life of Pi"

Characters/Actors:  Piscine Patel (?), Gerard Depardieu, etc.

        A middle-aged India(n) man tells an author a wondrous tale about how in his youth he survived on a tiny boat with a fierce, hungry tiger on the loose. As a boy, Piscine Patel is teased relentlessly by classmates for his name which when spoken sounds like  "Pissing". He quickly insists that his name be shortened to Pi. Pi's father is a businessman who owns a zoo. When the father attempts to relocate the family by way of ship, the entire menagerie from the zoo ends up aboard. En route to Canada, there is a storm, which causes the ship to sink. Pi ends up on a small boat with a wild hyena, a zebra, an orangatan, and a tiger which is hiding or sleeping under a tarp. Before long the animals conflict, and start to attack each other and some of who snap at Pi. Before long, the sole survivors on the rowboat are Pi and the tiger, who he has named  "Richard Parker".  Pi is afraid of the tiger, and with good reason, but he manages to survive without having to kill the magnificent beast. He grows to love the tiger as a companion.  There is a certain spiritual dimension to the film, and it is visually stunning. I enjoyed this film much more than I expected to. It is up to the audience to decide whether or not to believe the story the grownup Pi tells the author is true or merely symbolic. Based on a popular novel.