Passion does not drive men mad...

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2002)

...reason does. I can't remember where that quotation's from, but it seems apt in reference to this film. And maybe there's some things that we're just not meant to know, however advanced our science and reason become.

You don't see many films from any era that dare to incorporate so many disparate concepts, call themselves thrillers--and live up to the name. Pi is well-acted, tightly paced, and beautifully shot (I'm partial to the dreamlike quality of black-and-white). I was astounded to discover the film only cost 60 grand to make--it puts to shame many Hollywood productions that cost 1000 times that amount.
On the negative side, I would have liked to have seen a little more development of the mathematical concepts beyond the pop-math highlights we're given. And why is the film called Pi when that concept gets only a passing reference? But this is a thriller and a character study, and I suppose over-doing the intellectual concepts may have damaged the pacing. I was able to overlook those problems in light of the film's many qualities.