Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012)

Any adaptation of Yann Martel's best-seller centering on a boy stuck in a lifeboat with a menagerie of animals, including a tiger, was always going to need some crafty effects, and Ang Lee's film succeeds handsomely on this score, but it manages scenes of great beauty beyond that, with thunderous rolling seas and murderous islands coming to life to magical effect. Less convincing is the composite religion-come-spirituality that the main character presents, which was a turn-off for many readers of the source novel, but when the ride is so enchanting, it's a forgivable sin.

6/10