All Is Lost (***1/2)

J. C. Chandor’s (Margin Call) possibly allegorical tale is a model of visual storytelling. It begins with a man (Robert Redford) literally and figuratively at sea reading a desperate-sounding message in a voice-over that become the last bit of dialogue for a long while. Then it flashes back, but barely a week, and in that scene he is also at sea, on a boat that has had its hull damaged and is leaking. One thing after another is the story. It is Life of Pi without the magical realism or idyllic beginning. (The two films do both employ the gifted underwater photographer, Peter Zuccarini.) The breakdown of the man is the story also, and Redford must and does carry the entire film. We know virtually nothing about the man except that he is resourceful and seemingly stoic. Save for the scenes shot from above and below the waterline, the movie is entirely from his point of view. We are too caught up in his battle for survival to be depressed. It’s essentially a simple story whose powerful, concise telling is a strong argument for the power of the medium of film.

IMDb link

viewed 10/17/13 8:00 pm at Perelman Theater at Kimmel Center [Philadelphia Film Festival screening] and posted 10/14/13

Life of Pi (***1/2)

Like Cast Away, much of this story is about a man stranded and alone, but instead of being American he is Indian, instead of an island he is on a small boat, and instead of a volleyball his only companion is a non-human predator called Richard Parker. Director Ang Lee and screenwriter David Magee’s (Finding Neverland) adaptation of the Yann Martel bestseller is faithful to the novel’s spirit, though it omits many details about how to survive alone on a lifeboat.

Perhaps unnecessarily, Lee preserves the novel’s structure — a grown man, in Canada, telling the story of his distant childhood in India, and then his perilous voyage, to a curious stranger — and adds frequently gorgeous visuals: shimmering skies, glowing seas, and pastel cityscapes suggestive of a fable. Pi’s is a story  “to make you believe in God,” the stranger has been told. Pi (played winsomely by newcomer Suraj Shjarma), the son of an atheist, himself subscribes to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, and an element of spirituality runs through the movie, which can alternately be seen as a kind of magical realism. In some sense, both book and film draw a parallel between religious faith and storytelling, suggesting that the power of a good story is more important than certainty or literal truth. One need not agree to enjoy this existential story of adventure.

IMDb link

viewed 2/11/13 7:00 pm at Ritz East