Not believable, and not great

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2000)

One of the reviews of Pi I read on IMDB said this movie blended elements of number theory, Go, computer science, Wall Street,... into a solute of paranoid genius (I am paraphrasing from memory so please forgive me). I think one word in that sentence is off. The word 'genius' should be replaced with 'mess'. Pi does contain all the said elements, but this movie is just too silly to be taken seriously.
Many people have commented that this film's storyline borders on illogical towards the second half. I would go as far as to say it is laughable. Whatever intrigue they had generated was completely demolished once the second half reared its ugly head. Self-aware computers? The 216-letter name of God? Please, there are real uses for number theory, you don't need to invent stupid ones. Don't expect the plot to win you back after that till the end. The chase scenes aren't particularly intense (mostly because you can't see what's going on) and the story just gets sillier and sillier. In fact, if I didn't think the ending was great (truly a saving grace, even though it's a copout), I would have hated this movie. Instead, the ending shed a new light on the past 85 minutes and reassured me that what I thought was laughable indeed was intended to be. However, I don't think the film is brilliant or even clever for having done this; I still had to subject myself to 85 minutes (or at least 40 minutes) of meandering plot just to appreciate the ending, and I don't think it was worth it.
With that, we get to the technical side. The film is shot in black and white and the camera work is very shaky. Add this to an overall bleak setting and you get cinematography and mood perfect for the film. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of thing that's bearable for 85 minutes. I enjoyed the first few paranoiac episodes, but as they got longer and more frequent, I started to get overwhelmed by the headache-inducing camera work (as Max must have been). One thing that was always spot on however was the music. Most of the music used in the film is techno, and it always suits the film, whether during a subway scene or a paranoiac episode. Probably the highlight of the film and I would recommend the soundtrack.
One last thing: I thought it was funny when Saul explained to Max about Archimedes and the displacement problem. I thought everybody knew that story, especially mathematicians.