Life of Pi on DVD

I'm going through quite a few of the Best Picture nominees from this year's Oscars, as you can see if you've read my blog recently, and though Life of Pi was lower on my list, I still thought it would be worth watching (I heard it was beautiful, especially in 3-D). I haven't read the book, by Yann Martel (but I'm not sorry I haven't), and I went into it pretty much not knowing anything about the story, just that the book has been a bestseller and is sometimes read as school literature. I did not see it in 3-D, but I can see how it was filmed for it and could have been even more visually stunning than it already was. I have not been converted to 3-D yet, and I rarely see a movie in that form. (Didn't even see Avatar that way.) So, I find it somewhat annoying when I'm watching a movie and something comes straight toward the camera in a move that is designed for 3-D. It looks set-up and fake in the 2-D experience. I was especially annoyed by it in Oz the Great and Powerful, but it was done at least more tastefully in Life of Pi.

(SPOILER alerts about the ending to follow.) And it's true: Life of Pi is a visual treat. It's a beautiful story (thought I don't agree with the religious morals of it) right up until about ten minutes from the end. The story should have stopped there, but it goes on to pull the rug out from under everything you've believed about what you've been watching and it tries to tack on some feel-good, religious meaning to the whole thing. I was almost loving the movie until then. When I explained what it was about to my husband, he sort of chuckled drily and said it was an appropriate choice for an Oscar nominee. If you've read my review of three other Best Picture nominees this year, you know my opinion of what normally goes for Oscar bait. It's usually the depressing stuff, and though I've enjoyed some of the other nominees this year, Life of Pi fits the usual Oscar fare, unfortunately.

Now, for those of you who, like me, haven't read the book or seen the movie, I will give you the plot premise without spoilers you wouldn't be able to deduce fairly easily if you've ever seen the book's cover or the movie poster. Pi, an Indian boy whose father owns a zoo, is crossing the Pacific with a boat full of animals when the ship sinks. Pi gets stranded on a lifeboat with several other wild animals, including a dangerous Bengal Tiger. Thus, the stage is set. And it really is an amazing story. I assumed Pi and the tiger would hit it off like a happy Disney movie, unbelievably becoming fast friends, but that's not the case, and I'll leave any plot details at that.

I was so disappointed by the ending that I have to warn you, at least, though I won't give spoilers. It ruined it all for me. So, if you want a visual treat and aren't too concerned about where the story might be leading you, it's kind of fascinating. But if you don't like being misled, take it from me: skip this one. And I really hate to say it, too, because there are some beautiful scenes, and Pi's resourcefulness is fascinating.

As I alluded to before, the other thing I don't like about the movie is its religious message. Pi is a Hindu, so he believes in all kinds of gods, including Jesus and Allah. The message seems to be that belief is what counts, but as a Christian, I know it's more than that. It's whom you believe in that matters. It's a nice idea to think all religions can agree and are essentially the same, but it's simply untrue.

If I could somehow cut off the end of this movie, I might give it the high end of three stars. As is, I hate to rate it and do it a discredit because the art of it is beautiful, and the performance by Suraj Sharma as Pi is heartfelt and emotional. But as a whole I didn't like this movie.

Life of Pi is rated PG for emotional content and scenes of peril as well as normal predatory animal interactions, and it's just over two hours long.

A World Away

Nancy Grossman's A World Away, a young adult novel, is perhaps the first novel I've read about the Amish that isn't from a Christian perspective. It's a secular book, but the difference isn't really apparent until you get to the "English" parts of the book, and even then, it's rather subtle. There's just the lack of anything religious in the English world: prayers before meals, church, etc. Otherwise, the basic plot is very similar to other books I've read about the Amish: a girl, hungering for the outside world, leaves her community, lives among the English, and must then decide which world she wants forever, because among the Amish, you can be a part of only one or the other.

Eliza has just reached the age where those in her community are given the opportunity to run wild. The Amish lifestyle is not forced. It's one you choose after a time called Rumspringa. But choose you must. There's no living with a foot in both worlds. Eliza is desperate to be given more freedom for her Rumspringa, but her mother is cautious about letting her go, to say the least. Put in an impossible situation, knowing they'll lose her if they don't let her go on her own, her parents send her to be a nanny for an English woman named Rachel. Eliza is ready to try everything and anything. After all, she only gets this one chance...unless she decides to stay. But she doesn't have to figure that out for a whole summer, a summer of fun, delicious boredom, an attentive new boy, and firsts of just about anything she can imagine. There's nothing so wondrous as trying something for the first time.

Grossman's familiarity with the Amish lifestyle is obvious. She didn't just write a book, imagining life inside the Amish world. She studied it thoroughly and presented a more detailed transition from Amish to English than I had seen before. She answered questions I wouldn't have thought to ask. If the author wasn't once Amish herself, either she must have had a lot of close contact or she must be similar to the book's character Rachel. I won't say how because that would be a spoiler.

In some ways, I missed the religious discussion that Christian novels about the Amish provide. But in other ways, I didn't. It was interesting to have the focus be on the difference in lifestyle, especially between a person whose life is wrapped around religion and one who has no religion at all. I wonder if the novel could have been just the tiniest bit better with something more said on the topic, but I don't know.

What I do know is that this is a beautiful book. It made me cry so many times. It's all about relationships and the mistakes we must live through ourselves even though those who have gone before try so hard to keep us from making them. I was impressed that even the friendships that Eliza has with minor characters we barely see in the book feel real. I love books that make every character count even when their roles are small.

There is a love triangle in this book, but the story is not primarily a romance. It's about two worlds colliding, though they aren't supposed to. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I have to say it resolved itself far better than I could have imagined. Four stars for a book that takes a common experience in another world and presents it beautifully for our understanding.

Glow

Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan, claims to be as riveting as The Hunger Games, but although it is interesting enough, it is not the next big thing. The next Hunger Games will be something totally different, my husband points out, just as The Hunger Games was a different sort of story at the time. A lot of books are making this claim lately, but the closest I've seen is Pure, which I just reviewed, and even that, I predict, will not get the fame of The Hunger Games, even though it might deserve it.

Glow is the first in what will be the Sky Chasers series for young adults. Waverly and Kieran are among the oldest teenagers on the Empyrean, one of two spaceships traveling to what will become the New Earth. They are expected to marry and begin the re-population of humankind, and indeed, they have been dating for awhile. But when the Empyrean catches up with its sister ship, which should have been light years ahead, disaster awaits. Waverly and the girls are kidnapped to help the sterile population aboard the New Horizon, and Kieran and the other boys are left to die on a badly mangled Empyrean with no adult supervision. As their lives are turned upside down through suffering, they cling to the hope of seeing each other and possibly their parents again. But, without question, there can be no going back. Their lives and maybe even their love will be forever altered.

I enjoyed the pace of this book. The ship setting was fascinating, and there were a lot of moral dilemmas that kept me thinking even as I enjoyed the action and suspense. It's always intriguing to me to see teenagers reacting to and overcoming the worst adversity. Granted, I'm referring to fictional teenagers; I wouldn't wish these trials on real people. There's a little bit of Lord of the Flies going on here on one side of the story, and on the other is a strange mixture of cults and biotechnology. It's obviously a well-thought-out book, juggling a variety of ideas.

I had only one problem with the story, and unfortunately, it's over a rather crucial point, in my opinion. There are a few minor spoilers following. Elements of the story border on religious, not necessarily Christian but close enough to make me wonder what the author believes about Christianity. Since the series has only just begun, I can't say yet where the author's message will fall, but it's not looking good for any kind of religion. But, interestingly in this story, the division and fighting between the two ships stems from different religious views. The Empyrean is essentially for atheists, and the New Horizon, whose members kidnap the girls, is captained by a woman Pastor. Religion takes on a very bad light aboard the New Horizon, but back on the Empyrean, the boys begin to find comfort in coming together and having religious services. Religion looks good on the Empyrean, to a point, but it gets muddy at the very end. I'm curious to see where the author will go from here, but I don't have high hopes for this aspect of the story. I think the author might come down somewhere in the middle, but even so, her understanding of theology does not appear to be Christian and should be absorbed with caution. The whole religious aspect of the book is kind of key to the plot, and the way it is portrayed with mixed-up theology, even where religion seems to be good, has me cringing a bit. But the story is good and certainly thought-provoking.

Glow is available in September.