Review of Pi (1998) by Nathan C — 25 Mar 2010

Darren Aronofsky's directorial debut 'Pi' is a thriller, I haven't quite seen before. Aronofsky has delivered such a good debut film, that if this was his first piece of work I had saw...I'd be excited to see his future work. But this film looses ground on his confusing, complicated and uninteresting plot.

Pi is a film about Max Cohen, a mathematical genius who believes that everything in nature can be understood through numbers and that there is a pattern to everything. Max suffers from a number of conditions, including chronic headaches, extreme paranoia which can cause hallucinations and some obvious social issues, as he hates being around people. When his computer, goes wrong it brings out a 216 digit number which is the core presmise of the rest of the story, where a large corparation and Jewish religious group are both after these exact same numbers.

Sean Gullette does an amazing job portraying Max Cohen and stands as one of my favourite performances ever, it reminds me ever so slightly of Eraserhead? The character so messed up, that with the direction Aronofsky takes, you feel like your losing your mind with him.

Darren Aronofsky's direction is absolutely mind-blowing and I was watching more in awe at how this film played out, the choice to use high-contrast black and white and alot of grain added to the craziness of this film, as well using the same snap shot technique I've seen in Reqiuem for a Dream it adds to a frantic, confusing and haunting picture.

The highlight of this film however, is definitely Clint Mansell's score for this film. Unlike Requiem for a Dream, he uses more elecontric sounds including a very catchy drum n bass song which really heightens the fast paced and important scenes of the film. Clint Mansell is definitely one of my favourite soundtrack composers.

This film is a definite mindtrip, with its strong black and white photography, haunting yet beautiful soundtrack and brilliant performances. Its just a shame that the plot was so confusing, especially for me who is a total dud at maths that I couldn't fully enjoy what this film had to offer. Maybe if understand more of the premise behind it, I could of given it a higher rating.