Many have said that the bestseller Life of Pi would be impossible to film.  In addition to the story itself, it deals with the three things directors loathe to work with; children, animals and water.  But Ang Lee pick up the gauntlet and the result is a movie of awe-inspiring beauty that may not touch on everything the book has to say, but is instead a beautifully shot tale of one boy’s struggle to survive and keep his sanity and personal faith intact.

Pi Patel is a man from India that moved to Canada as a youth.  But getting to Canada was an ordeal, and when a writer (Rafe Spall, Prometheus) comes to hear Pi’s story in the hope of religious awakening, Pi tells a story of shipwreck, savagery and survival.  And a tiger that shares the lifeboat with him.  Yeah, a tiger.

What’s really breathtaking is that the bulk of Life of Pi rests on the shoulders of Suraj Sharma, a young man who makes his acting debut in this movie.  As most of the film is a two-man show — with one man being a very large Bengal tiger — that’s a ballsy move on Lee’s part, but Sharma carries the day, delivering a performance that is heartbreaking, uplifting and completely believable.

Then there’s the special effects, a necessary part of a film that deals with storms, the sea and animals.  Computer graphics, animatronics and FX makeup are woven into the film seamlessly; figuring out the real from the make-believe in Life of Pi is difficult to impossible.  The storm that sinks Pi’s ship is terrifyingly real and horribly brutal; this is one of the several moments where the 3D delivers the goods, instead of being a gimmick that only serves to bump up the cost of a ticket.  I could almost taste the salt water, feel the slick boards of the ship’s deck slide under my own feet.  Lee’s ability to work with special effects has been proven handily with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but Life of Pi is easily his masterwork.

As much as I love the feel of the film, I don’t feel as though Life of Pi went deep enough into Pi’s psyche to get the uplifting message of God that the character supposedly receives during his ordeal.  Is the movie wondrous, beautiful and amazing?  Absolutely.  All that and more, in fact; some scenes on the open ocean are shot so beautifully I wanted the film to stop so I could sit and admire them.  Instead of finding God, I was pulled into the life-and-death struggle of Pi as he fought to survive against seemingly impossible odds.  Screenwriter David Magee (Finding Neverland) distills Yann Martel’s novel into it’s most basic elements.  By focusing on the sections of the story having to do with the aftermath of the shipwreck, Life of Pi’s original religious/spiritual overtones are watered down a bit, making the movie more of a survival epic.

There’s spirituality sure, but at the beginning of the film The Writer (we never do find out his name) is promised belief in God, but it’s really more of a one-man Zen experience.  No less awesome, but I couldn’t help but feel it was a bit of a switch-up as the credits rolled.  I felt as if I was skating over the deeper areas of meaning, skimming the surface of what the author had brought to the table.  It’s a jaw-droppingly stunning work of art that left an odd hollow feeling after all was said and done.  It’s not as if I didn’t understand the message, it’s as if the message was a part of the film that the makers forgot to put in.

Go see Life of Pi, be amazed by the wondrous visual artistry and brilliant performance by a first-time actor.  Spring for the 3D because it does make a difference here.  But folks looking for a religious experience — or a concrete meaning to the story — may find themselves disappointed.