It's a Wonderful But Different Life

Who goes to the movies on Christmas day? Apparently everybody. My family drove 50 minutes to a 16-plex in Middletown, NY hoping to see Les Miserables at 3:30. The parking lot was surprising jammed, and when we went inside we found that the movie was sold out. We got tickets to see The Life of Pi instead. We'd all read the book so wanted to see how a film was made from the novel.

Since we arrived early, we were treated to a half an hour of local ads. Then we sat through 20 minutes of coming attractions. I was ready to leave at that point.

The film followed the book closely. Some of the philosophy was left out, and the action made the book
seem more exciting than it was, at least in my memory. The scene where the ship went down was breath-taking. The animal photography captured air, sea and land creatures in their natural habitats. Only the tiger and the surviving Indian teenager spend their time together in an unnatural habitat, a life boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The book and film end with two endings, one fantastical and the other amazing but more logical. Viewers are left with much to discuss; readers of the book have even more.

I told my sons that when I was young, nobody went to the movies on Christmas Day because they were spending time with their family. Jews go to movies on Christmas, although I didn't know that when I was young. My son Harry suggested that people want to get away from their families on Christmas Day because there was too much tension at home. Maybe we just aren't able to spend an entire day at home without spending any money.

We ended the day with Chinese food, the only kind of food you can get on Christmas Day in most of the U.S. My family had a wonderful day