This was very pretty.

No, that’s actually important this time: not pretty in a ooh, how quirky Tim-Burton’s-Alice-In-Wonderland way, but in the way that it needed to be to convey the sense of wonder that’s present in the novel.

It needed it because this is a piece that tries to sell an impossible premise: to convince unbelievers that god exists through the power of storytelling. It re-affirmed Barack Obama’s faith, but it goes without saying that I can watch this film and not undergo a magical conversion experience. The key, then, is making it still so (and I know this is starting to sound like Apple evangelism) magical as a piece of fiction that it’s accessible to people who find their sense of wonder elsewhere. “And so it goes with God” might as well be “and so it goes with finding meaning”, and that’s okay. The point of it all translates across religious boundaries, and that’s a relief.

I had mixed feelings about Suraj Sharma, who plays the title role. There are moments of intensity so powerful that he feels larger than life, and then a few missed beats. What nailed it for me, though, was the (decidedly more subtle) interplay between Irrfan Khan (as his older self) and - unbelievably - Rafe Spall (with a Canadian accent!) as the “Writer”, a stand-in for Yann Martel.

Thinking about it, this film works because it segments its themes - there’s a powerful sense of wonder in the brilliant set-pieces (that tiger was incredible) during the main narrative, but the catharsis is saved for the man recounting it, and that works extremely well. Each part does its job perfectly.

Someone just give Ang Lee a fucking Oscar. He deserves it.