I almost had to leave the theater, since I was getting sea-sick during the lifeboat sequences. And I wasn't even watching the film in 3D! Roiling seas and roiling nausea aside, the things I liked and disliked about Yann Martel's novel were the same things I liked and disliked about Ang Lee's screen adaptation. The at-sea segments drag on too long. The framework - an older Pi telling his story to an author - is even clunkier onscreen than on the page, as is the big denouement. What the film version does bring, though, is luscious cinematography. The stunning scenes of Pi and the tiger drifting at sea beguile on screen. And the CGI-created tiger seems utterly - sometimes scarily, sometimes beautifully - real.

- KRISTINA DORSEY