Thankfully, Ang Lee’s anticipated Life of Pi isn’t only going to be the story of a boy trapped on a raft with a tiger - not that it wouldn’t make for a compelling cinematic challenge for the director. I mean, how do you make that story interesting for the bulk of a movie’s run time? But the latest trailer for the film suggests more scope to the narrative, and the presence of Irrfan Khan, which always makes a movie better. Here’s the latest preview:
The character’s “greatest journey” remains the hook of the film: the act of a family moving a zoo to the other side of the planet, but getting caught in a storm that casts the animals out to sea. And just as we thought in the first trailer that hit, Lee’s selling point will be the storm effects in Lif of Pi … at least, in the first act of the picture. What happens from there will stay a mystery (to anyone who hasn’t read Yann Martel’s best-selling novel, that is).
Lee’s film will open this year’s New York Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 28th. In this digital world of instant analysis, we’ll know minutes after the screening if Lee’s adaptation is an Oscar contender – as was his Brokeback Mountain -- or just a handsome-looking gem for the fall movie season from a seasoned director who regularly entertains his audience while also tugging at their heart strings. At the very least, the cinematography should be worth the price of admission.
