Review: Pi

3/4

The first thing I should write about regarding this movie is its interestingness level. Surely the filmmakers expected it to be high... and surely the average viewer places it high. For me, the movie was just "interesting" on the interesting scale, no more. The subject matter scores an "intensely fascinating", but the level to which the film explores the subject matter is minimal.
Basically, the subject matter is number theory, and where mathematics can explain nature, and whether it can entirely. Perhaps the reason I was slightly underwhelmed with the film is because it felt shallow for its subject matter. It talked only about Archimedes, Pythagoras and Fibonacci--stories and concepts I'd heard about before. It makes a big deal of telling the story of Archimedes and his "Eureka!" moment, as if the viewer had never heard of that story. What's more, in the film the story is told to a number theorist. A genius, who surely knew all about Archimedes. It is explained to us through the medium of being explained to a genius. As if it is realistic that one would explain this to a genius in the same way one would explain it to us. I hate it when movies do this.....
I just wish the filmmakers knew a bit more about number theory, or explored it a bit more. By the end, I was satisfied with how they tied in religion, a concept I thought lame and uninformed at first, but I do wish that they would have explored things like this, relations to number theory, deeper.
Okay, I suppose the first thing I should have talked about is the atmosphere. The film is entirely black-and-white, very grainy at times, very shaky at times... very paranoiac. This is intentional, the viewer is supposed to feel nauseous and psychologically disturbed. Perhaps I am slightly tolerant. Nonetheless, it is disturbing or shocking at times, and unsettling in general. Aronofsky could have played on the shock value a little more to increase this effect... I'm thinking about more unexpected violence or sex.
The great revelation is that I've seen too many movies, particularly psychological movies, and know a little too much about math for this film to have a terrific effect on me. For the lamer, less educated viewer, I can see how this could be an unforgettable experience, frightening and fascinating.

Additions:
It's a movie about number theory, which is terrific, but is done by non-(number theorists). And you can tell.
Also, I could have a more disturbing main character. This guy was actually kind of okay... although he was brusque with people, he knew how to act normally, just didn't want to. His only problems were his (obsessive-compulsive)ness and that terrible disorder of the physical brain. I can imagine a more psychologically impaired main character to make the film much darker.
Yes, the film was not quite as dark as it could have been. Is this bad? I'm not sure. I can easily see changes that could be made to make it intensely dark and disturbing. First order of business is the main character's personality.
It seems that Aronofsky wanted to go as dark as possible. But me, perhaps I don't want to be so emotionally tormented. Perhaps I was happy when Max acted normally and ended up smiling in the end. My emotions want something different from my film-critic self.