Review: Pi

       Pi is a portrait of the fine line between madness and genius, also obsession, and math... I guess. Filmed in high contrast black and white, this movie feels like a project submitted to film school. It's very good, but it lacks the polish of director Darren Aronofsky's later work. This is a harsh, film that features plenty of hallucinations, and dizzying camera work, that is often difficult to be sure what is going on. It presents some interesting ideas, and some of the techniques that Aronofsky would go on to perfect in his later works can be seen. This is a difficult movie to watch, and the rewards of its viewing are not worth the effort.

        The film focuses on Max Cohen, a mathematician who is convinced of three things: 1) mathematics is the language of the universe, 2) nature can be expressed in numbers, 3) patterns are everywhere in nature. Max is trying to find patterns in the stock market so that he can predict stock prices. He gives his computer, Euclid, data, and it spits out stock predictions. He hasn't had much success with his program yet, and one day the computer spits out a crazy low stock price, a mysterious 216 digit number, and then crashes. After discussing the issue with his mentor over a game of Go, Max starts to become convinced that the secret to the universe lies in this mysterious number. Max is also being pursued by a Wall Street firm that wants to profit from his research, as well as being courted by hasidic rabbis, who believe that Max's research can help decode the Torah and bring about the messianic age. Max slowly begins to lose his grip on reality as he tries to unravel the mystery of the strange number. It's a psychological thriller with math and numerology at it's core.

       The cinematography is what works best here. While I wasn't a big fan of the super grainy black and white, the camera angles were very interesting. Many of the techniques used in this movie are also seen in Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream. The acting isn't anything special, though Sean Gullette is interesting to watch as he slips into madness. The convuluted script was the biggest issue I had with this film. The subplot involving the Wall Street company trying to buy his research didn't seem necessary, and many of the hallucinations seemed just to be weird for weirdnesses sake. I'm sure that the symbolism used in this movie makes sense to Aronofsky, but it's pretty difficult to decipher to anyone else. This is why I compare this movie to a student film;: it's pretentious. There are several aspects that make this movie interesting to watch, so it's certainly a good student film, but it feels like it's not quite ready for the big time.