PI movie review
PI isn’t about the mathematical constant 3.1415.., representing, among many other things, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diametre. The movie is about the deranged and beautiful quest of one person in search of the truth, the answer to the universe. The plot is a common one in science fiction: a phenotypic “aberration” in the brain causes the protagonist to develop special abilities that makes him sought after and feared. In this particular cases, Max acquires a deep grasp of number theory. With his assumptions, that mathematics is the universal language, that number theory can represent everything in nature, and that there is a pattern in everything that occurs in this universe, he sets about trying to find it in the stock market.
After him are people who are interested in his stock market analyses for monetary purposes, and more strangely, a group of Rabbis who are convinced the same pattern of numbers is the key to their salvation. However, Max is the only one who can understand the semantics of the 216 digit number that is key to the universal lock, a plot device that I thought was truly brilliant. In the end, Max succeeds on his quest, but what he understands is never revealed to us. I was fascinated with the idea of a Grand unified theory where if you understand the laws of nature, you can predict the course of events in the past as well as the future. We might disover laws of nature and soon be able to understand how our planet will behave in future including the course of events which might happen on it.
PI has an obscure plot but it might keep your attention if you have a scientific background. The movie is filmed in black and white and we are always kept wondering what is on Max’s mind who is the lead character of the movie.
I strongly recommend this movie if you are a mathematician or a computer scientist or if you can relate to science and techonlogy. I would rate this movie 8 out of 10.
