Life of Pi: Oscar Calling

To call this magnificent movie an adventure story, a survival epic or a tale of faith is to diminish the film's true purpose. It's about believing — or not believing — and while it doesn't preach and is never ponderous, it makes some very good points. It aims to make the viewer think.

All this is tied up in a tale about a shipwrecked teen, enroute with his family from India to Canada, who's lifeboat, replete with a Bengal tiger (maybe), ultimately winds up on the coast of Mexico. What happened during that long and dangerous voyage is at once frightening and fanciful, breathtakingly beautiful and horrifyingly bestial.

Visually the film is as exquisite as any The Movie Slut has seen. And since she did not see the 3D version, she will be returning for a second screening.