Lullaby for Pi

For a move based on (in my opinion) some excellent jazz, why isn't there a soundtrack available. Long time since I've heard any jazz like this!

.... colors and music!

What a kewl film! There is plenty of excellent jazz and melody throughout this story. The set coloration's are wonderfully moody and create the perfect tone for this semi-dramatic romantic love story.

Rupert Friend and Clémence Poésy give an outstanding performance as Sam & Pi. Set in an old hotel, a jazz bar, and a strange book & vinyl record shop Sam & Pi discover their love and resolve their individual wounds from just living. Pi creates the visual art that Sam creates with his music and song.

This movie has its own personality so do not expect a sweet Hollywood story. Here you will see and hear art.

A bravo from me!

It only seems fair to start my review by stating that I may, quite possibly, be Rupert Friend's biggest fan. So I'm biased. The only work of his that I've seen so far that I didn't like was Hitman: Agent 47 (just not my style, I'm not a gamer, I got bored).

Rupert and Clemence are so charming together. I agree with another reviewer's comment that their relationship developed a little too quickly to seem realistic. But I loved the film so much I let that go. It's a love story; live a little. I usually avoid love stories because they're usually so bad. But this one is so refreshingly different--Sam and Pi expressing similar struggles (loss, grief, etc.) in different mediums (Sam through music and Pi through journaling and photography).

It's one of the more refreshing film experiences I've had in a while. I was glued to the screen. More people should see this.

Sam (Rupert Friend) is a troubled jazz musician who has stopped singing after a devastating lost. He runs a failing bookstore and lives in an old hotel run by George (Forest Whitaker). He befriends kids who walk in thru his ground floor window. His life changes when Pi (Clémence Poésy) breaks into his room and locks herself in his bathroom. She refuses to show her face as they both recover from personal heartbreaks.

There are great bits. I love Poésy and I don't mind Friend at all. The split screen of them on opposite sides of the door is great. They are good together. His musical ride into hip hop could have been very awkward but it actually works. Other than the character growth, the plot doesn't have much drive. It's like her pi tattoo where it has no ending and they dot dot dot it to put in a finale. It needs more in terms of plot writing and a bit more dialogue writing which could launch this romance into the atmospheres. It has a calm loving charm but the drama isn't there.

The film begins with a woman gaining access accidentally to the wrong apartment where there's a stock super-wise-man who hands out the keys. The invaded tenant is watching a cult favorite in his underwear. He asks if she's been sent by his friends to cheer him up. That is the first and last part of the move that rings true, that she's offended by the implication that she's a prostitute. But she forgives him quickly since she's in his room and made the error. Too quickly. She starts watching the movie too quickly too and, too quickly, finds it amusing. That's as good as it gets. She moves in too quickly and stays in his bathroom and he accepts that all too quickly because I guess he doesn't need to use it. Everything has to be established too quickly because not one character or relationship has an ounce of reality. Everything about this movie is forced because it's a compendium of cliches and stock sociological issues-du-jour. Point made! On to next point! Oh? It's a metaphor? For what?

The movie moves like quicksand. That would have been a good title: Quicksand. A lot of struggling and it just goes down, down, down.