Revel in the delight of ‘Pi

By CARY DARLING
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

Science and spirit, technology and transcendence may sometimes be at war, but in “Life of Pi” — Ang Lee’s spectacular take on the popular Yann Martel novel — they instead make for graceful dance partners.

The story of a boy who finds his faith challenged after being stranded at sea with only wild animals for company is made stunningly real by the latest developments in computer graphics and 3-D cinematography.

The result is that a book that many might have considered best kept on the printed page comes rapturously alive on screen.

“Life of Pi” is told in flashback with the adult Piscine Molitor Patel (Irrfan Khan), an Indian immigrant living in Montreal, is recounting his incredible life to a disspirited author (Rafe Spall) on the hunt for something to write about. And the tale he tells is an unbelievable one.

Back in India, Patel’s idiosyncratic dad (Adil Hussain) not only had a touch of the poet in him — naming his son after a Parisian swimming-pool complex, the Piscine Molitor — but also ran a small zoo.

Life is pretty good for the Patels, especially young Piscine (Suraj Sharma) who calls himself Pi. He is one of the most clever kids in his class and often wonders about the Big Questions. He declares at one point that he’s Hindu, Muslim and Christian, much to the consternation of his Hindu mom, non-believing dad and not particularly interested brother (Ayan Khan).

Then Pi’s world is turned upside down when the family decides to move to Canada, bringing their menagerie with them on what would be a slow, tortuous journey across the Pacific. Tragedy strikes when a violent storm sinks the ship, killing nearly everyone on board. Pi manages to make his way onto a lifeboat — as do several of the animals, including a Bengal tiger (cheekily named Richard Parker), a wounded zebra, an orangutan, and a snarling hyena in an especially bad mood (not that you can blame him).

If handled badly, this is when “Life of Pi” could have veered into silliness. But Lee, along with scriptwriter David Magee (“Finding Neverland”) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “TRON: Legacy”) manage to keep the fantastic credible.