Arts and Entertainment

Swallowed up by Life of Pi the movie

Alex Sisca
December 19, 2012

Based off of the popular novel “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, the major, motion picture “Life of Pi” is about a 16-year-old Indian boy named Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel (Suraj Sharma) who becomes the only survivor after a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean . Pi is thrown onto a life raft, left to fend for himself alongside an orangutan, hyena, zebra and a Bengal tiger.

Sharma was incredible. He was perfect for the role of Pi. For example, when Pi is in the first in the raft he is screaming hysterically and Sharma had all the emotion Pi is supposed to have. Sharma had all the intensity and power the character has in the book. Pi goes through things we could never imagine, such as, hunger and fear of being eaten by a tiger. Sharma portrayed those emotional experiences beautifully.

Like many movies, the director couldn’t include every detail from the book. Still, I think the movie could have gone into more depth. “Life of Pi” could have shown more of what Pi goes through. However, at the end, I thought to myself, “I want to watch that again.”

“I would describe the movie as being a ‘limp handshake’ missing the depth and complexity of the novel. The visuals were delightful, but the content left me longing for a richer adaption,” Graeme Sandell, Rosemont Middle School language arts teacher said.

I loved it and I appreciated having an adult Pi explain moments that I knew would confuse those who have not read the book or needed a refresher. There were a few times where I felt that adult Pi could have gone into further explanation. I would give this movie a B+ because an important part from the book was cut short. “Life of Pi “is rated PG for emotional content and some scary action sequences.

Donate to wlhsNOW

$145

$500

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of West Linn High School. Your contribution will allow us to continue to produce quality content by purchasing equipment, software, and continuing to host our website on School Newspapers Online (SNO).

About the Contributor

Alex Sisca, Reporter

Dazzling fireworks and decorative birthday cakes are the essence of July for Alessandra Sisca, Senior. While she celebrates the Fourth of July with usual traditions, the day marks the end of a two-day celebration that begins with her July third birthday.

“I don’t really think of it like my birthday,” Sisca said. “When it’s Fourth of July, I do what most people do—if we’re at the beach, sometimes [my family will] do a cookout and we’ll go to the parade—if we’re home we’ll do something quiet. My neighbors go up to Washington and buy fireworks, and basically you hear them from the time it barely gets dark until midnight. So we basically get our own firework show.”

The excitement of this summer has transitioned straight into the new school year. Sisca has been absent from Amplifier for the past two years, but she has decided to return to West Linn High School’s independent newspaper for her final year in high school.

For Sisca, freshman year of high school marked the beginning of a journey and a new passion. Sisca has worked with the Oregon City Children’s Theater as an aide in shows and a mentor to young actors for the last four years. The organization, according to Sisca, is an independently-run program that is “an open theater to anybody.”

For two shows, she has worked backstage, and recently Sisca debuted as an actress in two other shows. The shows that she has acted in were “Alice in Wonderland” as a Jabberwocky and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as an Italian reporter. She was able to take advantage of her Italian heritage by displaying an authentic Italian accent.

“I kind of tried to imitate the way my grandparents speak,” Sisca said.

Because the productions are put on by a small collection of people, fundraising is done completely by those who run it. The sets, according to Sisca, are not as extravagant as Broadway and even some high school displays, but she considers them to be a good quality for a community theater. Sisca’s favorite set was from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“It was a lot of fun to set up all the rooms in the factory, “ Sisca said. “It was a lot of fun to watch everything come to life.”

Sisca feels that theater has helped herself grow as a person.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself through theater. It’s kind of fun because the director, Michelle, makes the experience fun for everyone,” Sisca said.

While Sisca is involved with the theater beyond school, she hopes to sleep at a decent hour and raise her GPA. After high school, Sisca plans to fulfill her graduation requirements and afterwards attend the University of Windsor in Canada. There she will study business in the hopes of one day running her own dress shop. This shop, Sisca described, will contain dresses of all shapes, sizes, colors and styles.