Pi (the movie)
I finally saw Pi this evening. Feelings are mixed.
The Good: I liked the portrayal of a genius on the edge of insanity. The exposed-brain hallucinations were disturbing in a good way. The frustration of trying to do technical work with inadequate, jury-rigged equipment also struck a nerve with me. I liked the scenes with Sol, and the anecdotes about Fibonacci, Archimedes, Pythagorus. (Though I wish they'd connected the golden ratio with the Fibonacci sequence:) I thought linking the high priest "Kohen Gadol" with a character named "Max Cohen" was kind of amusing.
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The Bad: I don't like what I saw as the moral of the film; that there is an underlying mathematical pattern to the universe, but that looking for it will drive you mad or kill you, and the only way to be happy is to destroy such knowledge by fire and deliberate brain damage. Way too Garden of Eden. I feel like I want to cleanse myself watching a nice, pleasant movie about a mathematical madman, like A Beautiful Mind, or maybe try the Erdos biopic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
And on a personal note, I'm sick of gematria and kabbalah. I agree with Sol's comment; that if you give up on scientific rigor, you're no longer doing mathematics, you're doing numerology.
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The Ugly: I feel like the jumpy camera angles, artsy montages and such are excessive. I think the movie would be more understandable, less contrived, without such flourishes.
Net rating: 7/10. If you want a movie about the underlying mathematical nature of the universe, see Contact* or Donald in Mathmagic Land. If you want a movie about an insane genius mathematician, See A Beautiful Mind. If you've already seen those, and want something more edgy, more Jewish, and less polished in terms of cinematography, give Pi a try.
*The book is even better
The Good: I liked the portrayal of a genius on the edge of insanity. The exposed-brain hallucinations were disturbing in a good way. The frustration of trying to do technical work with inadequate, jury-rigged equipment also struck a nerve with me. I liked the scenes with Sol, and the anecdotes about Fibonacci, Archimedes, Pythagorus. (Though I wish they'd connected the golden ratio with the Fibonacci sequence:) I thought linking the high priest "Kohen Gadol" with a character named "Max Cohen" was kind of amusing.
---
The Bad: I don't like what I saw as the moral of the film; that there is an underlying mathematical pattern to the universe, but that looking for it will drive you mad or kill you, and the only way to be happy is to destroy such knowledge by fire and deliberate brain damage. Way too Garden of Eden. I feel like I want to cleanse myself watching a nice, pleasant movie about a mathematical madman, like A Beautiful Mind, or maybe try the Erdos biopic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
And on a personal note, I'm sick of gematria and kabbalah. I agree with Sol's comment; that if you give up on scientific rigor, you're no longer doing mathematics, you're doing numerology.
---
The Ugly: I feel like the jumpy camera angles, artsy montages and such are excessive. I think the movie would be more understandable, less contrived, without such flourishes.
Net rating: 7/10. If you want a movie about the underlying mathematical nature of the universe, see Contact* or Donald in Mathmagic Land. If you want a movie about an insane genius mathematician, See A Beautiful Mind. If you've already seen those, and want something more edgy, more Jewish, and less polished in terms of cinematography, give Pi a try.
*The book is even better