Life of Pi (don't get, I)

So, I watched Life of Pi and then read the Wikipedia entry about the book. In the Reception section of that entry, we find out that President Barack Obama wrote to the author directly (talk about cracklike feedback) to say that Life of Pi is "an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling."

Power of storytelling, yes. I'm right there. Apparently, Ang Lee read this book and decided it could never be a movie and still made it, and (in my opinion) succeeded brilliantly. There are beaucoup references to God and Divinity in many forms (there's Hindu here, so "many forms" sort of understates it) and the whole big survival against great odds and the symbolism of clear water v. not clear water, but....

I'm missing the 'elegant proof of God' bit. Maybe I'm jaded by pop TV and soap opera tropes where one knows that as soon as a good character appeals to God, there's no such thing as impossible odds and there will be miracles. Maybe this whole movie is actually poetry, and I just ran into my justalurkr Don't Get Poetical Sh!t wall,  The allegory is all over the place, what's a meta for? and insert something clever about similes here.

Question for people who have only seen the movie: did I miss something?

Question for people who have only read the novel: did you see proof of God in those pages, elegant or otherwise?

Question for people who have read the novel AND seen the movie: or, more of a request: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, tell me Ang Lee butchered it and I should have read the book first, which would make me not a poetry-blind blockhead?

By the way, I keep dragging poetry into this because some of the visuals are exactly that. Is gazing into the magical realism of what Ang Lee did with the water meant to prove something? Ack. Missing a nuance, here.

Lincoln (movie)

I just spent the better part of three hours watching Republicans play dirty in the name of freedom.

AND I WAS ROOTING FOR THEM.

I will admit to some reluctance to see such blatant Oscar-bait until finding out that Tommy Lee Jones had a role in the film. I was beyond delighted to find out it was a substantial role and now feel that if this film gets no other recognition, TLJ should be showered with awards as Supporting Actor.

Also, Congress is really boring these days. The 19th Century guys really knew how to throw a debate.

Am I the only US citizen unaware of the corruption surrounding the passage of the 13th Amendment? That was kind of shocking to me.