An abstract piece of work from first-time director Aronofsky

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2001)

Pi is Aronofsky's debut feature length piece, and it seems as if it was a pet project to him, but there may be the slight notion that he spent a little too long refining his baby. Pi comes off like an abstract poem that's just a little too obscure, and no-one is really sure what the poet is trying to achieve, hence the poem comes off as slightly self-indulgent.
What Pi does do though is offer an interesting representation of Max Cohen, a brilliant but troubled and obsessive compulsive mathematician, who becomes infatuated with discovering a 216 digit number which will not only unlock the stock market but also reveal the real name of God. However, the film concentrates not so much on the storyline but prefers to concentrate on effectively displaying the everyday life of Max, from his disturbing migraine attacks to his fear and paranoia of other people. Ultimately this is a story about Max, and his development from a reclusive maniac to a slightly more normal and younger carbon copy of his mentor Sol Robeson. The camera changes frequently between putting the audience into the head of Max to watching him in a third person, sometimes almost voyeuristic, fashion. The change of picture quality occasionally highlights this subtle switch.

Pi isn't a religious movie, despite the apparent religious content to the plotline. In fact, the group of Jew's trying to uncover the 216 digit number are presented in no better a light than the group of Wall Street predictive agents threatening Max to present them with the number. You get the feeling that when Max, towards the beginning of the film, tells Lenny that "I'm not interested in religion" that this may be the voice of Aronofsky (a self proclaimed "classically hypocritical high holiday Jew") distancing himself from any notion of Pi being religious.
Although Pi is original and strangely compelling, it is just Aronofosky wetting his directorial beak and practicing techniques which he will make better use of in his sophomore feature 'Requiem For A Dream', a more accomplished and mainstream film. If you compare and contrast the two closely, then you will find countless similarities.
However as I said, it is original and it is compelling, and it is better than most pap from the Hollywood production line.

8/10