Review of Pi (1998) by I Don't Know W — 07 Jul 2011

Pi is a film about obsession, how our minds can go in order to discover something important about our existence. The plot follows Max Cohen, a mathematical genius that tries to make a pattern of numbers to deduce the market, the Torah, etc. He is a numerologist whose only friend is an old math teacher, Soi Robeson, whom tells him to stop getting obsessed with numbers, but the protagonist gets paranoid on finding a number. As the plot progresses, Max encounters people that want to make him a tool for their own pawn.

Director Darren Aranofsky has made an original film, an intelligent mind-thriller that leaves you wanting more. Like the films he has directed, Pi is a story about obsession. How obsession can control our actions and decisions. The protagonist is most of the time in his computer searching for a number, and yet he is scared talking to people. I remember one scene in which the people of the Wall Street Company go and ask him for his service, the protagonist doesn't even look at them. He refuses, they offer him money, a job, a powerful chip but he is uninterested in all of this. His paranoia over numbers and mathematics comes to an extreme when he starts to hallucinate and his mind just goes out of control.

I highly praise this film for its originality, script, acting and realism. I mean, this film has it all. The film is about how the protagonist becomes self-conscious of his existence and can live his life without numbers and how beautiful life is. I praise the scene when the protagonist and the teacher are playing GO, because it holds 2 different types of knowledge. We have the protagonist whom is obsessed in wanting to know more and we have the mentor whom no longer needs to know more because he knows that no one knows everything. These two simple and yet complex characters shows how we live our lives on how do we dwell in order to reach our personal goals. The game GO also serves as symbolism for this film as the world itself, of how we think the world is a small place but it is not. The world is a place with a lot of angles that nobody can tell all of them. That's the story, a story about how a man tries to live life perfectly, but you can't because nothing is perfect. This is Darren's first film, and like Christopher Nolan, he started his career great because I think this is the best film he has made, better than Black Swan.

The problem that I had with this film is that there was no climax, or it was really the most normal climax I have seen in a movie. The supporting characters where good but it could have been better. Pi is really a smart film, this film has a mind of his own because it is interesting, short, simple and extraordinary. Threw his experiences that does the protagonist realizes that there are no need of patters to find the secrets of life. Life is full of secrets that we never find the answers because only ourselves can answer those question or we don't want to answer those questions. I simply love the opening credits of this film because it remind back of the film Psycho. This film is about chaos on how we easily lose ourselves for something that is important but can destroy us at the same time.

I recommend this film to people that love mind-blowing films that serve as riddles like the film Memento. This film doesn't have a lot of entertainment as you usually see in action movies unless you love match. This is a strong movie for an example there a scene in which the protagonist is touching a human brain, so be careful. For all the people that love drama, I suggest you should watch this film because it contains important elements of the drama genre.