Life of Pi
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: November 21, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireOlly RichardsDec 17, 2012
To produce a coherent film from Martel's tricky novel would be achievement enough, but Ang Lee has extracted something beautiful, wise and, at times, miraculous. Read full review
100
Total FilmMatt MuellerNov 25, 2012
A riot of saturated colour and delirious imagination, Ang Lee's adap radiates spirituality. But it's also a simple, thrilling and gently uplifting tale of a boy, a boat and a tiger. Take the plunge. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenNov 21, 2012
Every once in a long while, the right director comes across the right project at just the right moment, and things so often discordant fall into perfect harmony. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 20, 2012
Is it real? Is this whole story real? I refuse to ask that question. Life of Pi is all real, second by second and minute by minute, and what it finally amounts to is left for every viewer to decide. I have decided it is one of the best films of the year. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 20, 2012
There are always moral crosscurrents in Lee's most provocative work, but so magical and mystical is this parable, it's as if the filmmaker has found the philosopher's stone. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 19, 2012
Pi has designed his own terrarium to keep from staring directly into the abyss. It's not denial. It's faith in something else: the transformative power of storytelling. The film is transcendent. Read full review
100
TimeRichard CorlissOct 1, 2012
Pi is a giant leap forward, outward and upward in expanding the resources of the evolving medium of movies. Magical realism was rarely so magical and never before so real. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 30, 2012
Meticulous care is evident in every aspect of the film. All three actors playing Pi are outstanding. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 21, 2012
Never has 3-D illusion been used to such pure storytelling effect. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonNov 21, 2012
The larger messages about spirituality often seem forced, and it's more compelling to focus on Lee's visceral cinematic experience than on the larger, fuzzier messages Martel's story conveys about humanity's connection with God. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 28, 2012
Deeply resonant and soulful, Life Of Pi, is a harrowing journey of survival, self-discovery and connection that both inspires and awes in equal measure. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 26, 2012
Life of Pi, at its best, celebrates the idiosyncratic wonders and dangers of raw, ravaging nature, and Lee wrings more than enough meaning from the excitement of that spectacle; we need nothing higher. [26 Nov.2012, p.86]
90
VarietyJustin ChangSep 30, 2012
This exquisitely beautiful adaptation of Yann Martel's castaway saga has a sui generis quality that's never less than beguiling, even if its fable-like construction and impeccable artistry come up a bit short in terms of truly gripping, elemental drama. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie OgleNov 21, 2012
Life of Pi works seamlessly on two levels. With grace, imagination and stunning visual acuity, it explores Martel's twin themes of faith and the power of storytelling. It's also a thrilling action adventure. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 20, 2012
A spectacular high-seas epic that employs technology brilliantly and underscores the power of a vividly told story. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 20, 2012
A character in Yann Martel's novel "Life of Pi" tells us this will be a story to make us believe in God. The film version written by David Magee and directed by Ang Lee may do that – you'll decide for yourself – but it will definitely make you believe in the power of cinema. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 20, 2012
As enchanting as it is ambitious. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 20, 2012
Lee uses 3D with the delicacy and lyricism of a poet. You don't just watch this movie, you live it. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 20, 2012
Lee's bigger theme isn't God or survival, but the awesome adventure of making the imaginary visible, the adventure of making movies. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 28, 2012
In its finer moments, however, Lee translates the book's wondrous prose into grand visual conceits meant for the big screen. Posited as a story that "will make you believe in god," instead it has the power to confirm one's faith in the cinematic experience. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 23, 2012
Mr. Lee's film is stronger as a visual experience - especially in 3-D - than an emotional one, but it has a final plot twist that may also change what you thought you knew about the ancient art of storytelling. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloNov 23, 2012
The script I did question; it takes awhile to get going, and it feels strangely flat at the very end. But in between, Lee is very skillfully employing cinema's most advanced digital techniques in the service of an adventure yarn that is gloriously old-fashioned - and often just glorious. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 21, 2012
The result is a movie built upon big ideas -- and timely ones, too, delivering a message of understanding in this frustrating age of great intolerance -- but also a great story and, thanks to Lee, a wonderfully satisfying cinematic journey. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 21, 2012
Though the film's setup trudges and its closing is too pat, that hour or so on the raft is something special, and few would dive into the story's soul as Lee does. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 20, 2012
The look of the film is jaw-dropping at times, beautiful to behold. If the story... can't quite keep pace with the look of the film (and, alas, it can't) it will take you awhile to notice. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 20, 2012
The movie works on a bedrock level that many ostensible action films forget. Let New Age viewers in your crowd get misty-eyed - there's plenty here for anyone. Read full review
80
The GuardianTom ShoneSep 30, 2012
Hollywood has been waiting for this movie. Get ready for the year of the Tiger. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 23, 2012
It proves the power of a good story, both to entertain us and to allow us to process unpleasant truths. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyNov 21, 2012
Much as I was moved by the film, I have one reservation and one warning. The framing device of the older Pi recounting his story to the author (which worked so well in Martel's novel) is intrusive and significantly detracts from the story. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 21, 2012
Lee may, in the end, be too balanced a filmmaker to give Life of Pi the extra spin of lyric delirium it sorely needs. It's a sane movie about an essentially deranged situation. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickNov 21, 2012
Even at his best, Sharma doesn't have sufficient acting chops - or enough Hanks-like charisma - to hold the screen alone for more than 70 minutes with the CGI Richard Parker (as well as a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a rat who quickly become food for the ravenous tiger). Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 21, 2012
Life of Pi is a curious juxtaposition of the mundane and the majestic; a film that strives for something grander than what it perhaps achieves. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 20, 2012
Life of Pi is spellbinding while it lasts. Lee's film can be appreciated as many things -- a post-Darwinian meditation on coexistence as the key to survival, a reflection on the spiritual nature of suffering and transcendence, a beguiling bait-and-switch on the vagaries of belief itself. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 20, 2012
Reducing Life of Pi to a homily does it a disservice. Lee gives the framing story short shrift and concentrates on visualizing the inner tale with as much detail and power as possible. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 20, 2012
Life of Pi, Yann Martel's beautiful little book about a young man and the sea and a tiger, has transformed into a big, imposing and often lovely 3-D experience. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundOct 1, 2012
The second act shifts the film from a lazy and comfy litany of introductions to a riveting fantasia of pure cinema, wherein Lee paints an oft-wordless picture of nature's harshness and grace, the perfect arena for Pi to have a Christ-like coming of age. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 21, 2012
Life of Pi, ironically, soars when it confines itself to land and sea; when it grasps for the celestial, the film goes beyond its reach. Read full review
60
MovielineAlison WillmoreNov 20, 2012
The story of Pi and Richard Parker already has the clean simplicity of a myth and really doesn't require significant elaboration, but following in the footsteps of the source material, the film provides elaboration anyway, demonstrating a condescension to the audience that dulls the spectacle it punctuates. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovSep 30, 2012
Ang Lee's adaptation of Yann Martel's mega-selling novel Life Of Pi is technically adept, mildly engaging and thematically pedantic. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensNov 21, 2012
The movie's energy peters out in a series of book-club conversations about divine will, the power of storytelling, and the resilience of the human spirit. The ending's pious dullness is enough to make you wish you were back on that lifeboat, where the most pressing questions weren't spiritual but gastronomic: What's on the menu for lunch, and what can I do to make sure it isn't me? Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 21, 2012
It's a slow-moving fable, with enough story and substance to make for one amazing Imax short. Instead the material is stretched beyond its limits into a long, repetitive and often stagnant 127-minute feature film. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 20, 2012
The movie invites you to believe in all kinds of marvelous things, but it also may cause you to doubt what you see with your own eyes - or even to wonder if, in the end, you have seen anything at all. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 19, 2012
I felt like I'd been invited to a seven-course dinner, and all seven turned out to be cake – and then the host insisted on delivering a lecture about how cake would bring me closer to God. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick SchagerNov 20, 2012
Life of Pi manages occasional spiritual wonder through its 3-D visuals but otherwise sinks like a stone. Read full review
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