Original and cool

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2008)

Pi is the first film by Darren Aronofsky. The low budget black and white film about numbers and the Jewish religion is an interesting and intelligent movie with a unique look.
The look of Pi is definitely one of its best attributes. For a feature film made for $60,000, Aronofsky achieves an impressive look that many Hollywood films never achieve. The fuzzy and grainy black and white is surprisingly very pleasing to look at. Several shots are even overexposed but it adds to the religious theme of the movie. The overexposed glow at times seems heavenly. The snorricam is also adds to the strange visual feel of the film. The camera is mounted on the main character and pointed at him so it seems like he is floating through time and space in a majestic manner.
The story is equally well done. It has themes of obsession (for the number itself) and religion (the source and meaning of the number). The plot centers around a man who looks for patterns within the stock market, as it is said that everything has numerical patterns. That is something we all wish we could know and manipulate. The obsession then centers around pi, or the number 3.14... The main character is one of many who try to figure out the mystery of the number and why it has no end. Any math geek's dream.
There are no explosions or special effects (or even color for that matter) in this movie, but its unique story and accuracy of scientific information make it a must see for any fan of film-making.