the world desperately trying to understand itself.

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2003)

Pi is a movie teaming with ideas and self realization. The premise is quite simple in that it is an exploration of a mathematician trying to understand explore the nature of reality. The closer he gets to truth the farther he strays from understanding it. The movie lingers on the golden ratio ( 1.618034 ) found in the Fibonacci sequence (1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610,987.....) and how this man made creation is one way to understand the world by it's mere presence (percieved or real) everywhere in nature. Several ideas don't even have to be mentioned in the movie to play a part such as quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and the uncertinty pricncipal which have all conspired to bring an end or limitation to the uses of mathematics. The curious idea hardly mentioned in the movie is that computers become self aware working with these complex mathematics and try to understand themselves by which they go mad and shut down all practical functioning. The same can be said of the lead charecter of Max. As he tries to ponder the world he overlook that he is a part of that world and he must ultimately understand himself to understand the world. When he fails to do this he only digs a deeper hole and eventually all the practicalities in life such as eating, sleeping, and human relationships become secondary in importance to him. Darren Aronofsky has made a wonderously intelligent film here. I could have watched another two hours of this and I'll bet it probably would not have slowed down a bit. This is a rare movie that I think even those who respect it will over look how truly great it is. An intricate work of art that has so many philosophical ideas and an under belly of morality that itcould be one of the best movies in the last two decades. I like it.