Life of Pi

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2005)

Daniel Aronofsky's brilliantly deranged thriller, 'Pi', is the story of a mathematician losing his mind. With its black-and-white photography, jerky editing, and 1970s aesthetic, the film creates a mood of tension, paranoia and plain confusion reminiscent of that found in the books of James Keleman or in Christopher Nolan's backwards-told 'Momento'; while the plot, though deliberately incoherent, takes the form of a Jewish version of the 'Da Vinci code', or 'Foccault's Pendulum'. Sean Gullette is excellent in the main role, and for affectionados of the game Go (often used in movies as a visual metaphor for genius), there's an added bonus of several Go-playing scenes. Disturbing, pseudo-intellectual fun at its best.