Review of Pi (1998) by Lanning : — 17 Aug 2009

It's death, Max . . . A dynamite idea -- Aronofsky is good at that. But between the idea and the execution, something happens, and it's not a really good something. First off, I want to give high praise to Sean Gullette for one very intense, highly believable acting job.

Playing someone this obsessed so precisely for any good length of time is most commendable. To sustain this kind of intensity for an hour and a half, he obviously has the right stuff. But what kills me, not just with this movie, but with actors who burn brightly in any insignificant project, is that they just might burn themselves out for nothing.

There's a lot to be said for saving yourself for good scripts. For me, there's a big difference between what is "complex" and what is just plain "confused." I hope Gullette gets better chances.

I can't help but think what Ron Howard might have done with this idea. It's the problem of substituting flash for substance. Howard can manage that on the substantive end. Aronofsky has to work on that.

Convolution. That's all I can think of. Not faith in chaos -- faith in convolution. That's not theory. That's truly pure faith. The first star is for Gullette; the second star is for Aronofsky's potential.