typical "indie" heavy-handedness

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2001)

Pi suffers from what I call the explain-it-to-the-audience syndrome,
where the filmmaker is convinced that he knows something we
don't, and feels the need to explain it to us. So whenever a
character speaks, either directly to us in a voice over, or indirectly
through a conversation with another character (though it is still
obviously directed at us), he is "teaching" us about some concept -
numbers, the golden rectangle, etc. It's not only pretentious, but
takes away any sort of realism in the characters, since they are not
allowed to carry on as any real human being would. It's hard to get
absorbed into Pi, because you can feel the director's presence
looming over every scene. It makes the movie very tedious to
watch. Unless, of course, you're in the mood to be talked down to.