A good movie

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2003)

Pi is a good movie. It's not the best movie ever made, but it is up there on the top ten list, in my book anyway.
The story, in brief, is about a lone-wolf mathematician who is on the verge of discovering the underlying pattern behind all seemingly random events. He reasons that all things that seem random can be broken down into simpler pieces until you arrive at something deep down that is common to all patterns.
I think here is where a lot of people go wrong in the movie. They over-emphasize the importance of religion. The religeous part of the movie is just one of the factions fighting for the 216 digit number that explains all patterns.
Spoilers:
By the end of the movie, a lot of people think that the reason that no one can know the 216 digit number is that it is the "name of God". In my opinion, this is only one theory. My theory is that the reason we can not know the 216 digit number is that it cannot be written down or understood because it would then be a part of itself. Since the number explains all sequences. For example, there is a theory in AI which says that we cannot write a thinking program because we cannot make a language with which we can explain intelligence because of the limitations of our own minds. How do you describe a smell without referencing other smells? Colors without referencing other colors?
One of the reasons why I find this explanation more logical than the religious one, for example, is the selfdestruction of the computer, which obviously does not have a soul. So what does it matter if the computer knows the 216 digit number? The computer can't understand the number. But it can contain the algorithms based on the number that can be used to predict everything. Of course, a computer can't hold the information of everything...
spoiler end.
Anyway, that is *my* theory. But don't think that it is the right one. And don't think that *your* explanation is the right one either, or that you know what the director (and the other writers) intended. Unless you have asked them (or *are* them :-).
This movie isn't for everyone. If you didn't like it, or understand it, then it was not for you. If you like maths and science, and like original movies about new things (that don't explode or fall in love with their neighbours) you'll probably enjoy this. One or two omissions or errors is bound to occur, instead of beating down on them, try to see the big picture, the big implications.
Maybe, there is a Theory of Everything that we cannot understand, because it defines understanding. Maybe.