1998, 1 hr 24 min., Rated R for language and some disturbing images. Dir: Darren Aronofsky. Cast: Sean Gullette (Max Cohen), Mark Margolis (Sol Robeson), Ben Shenkman (Lenny Meyer), Pamela Hart (Marcy Dawson).

Pi is "mental" in two ways: First, in Max Cohen's intense obsession with uncovering the code of nature and second, in that Max is driven to the brink of, and I believe drove 100 mph over the cliff of, insanity in his quest.

Max, played by Sean Gullette, is a super-duper mathematical genius. How do we know this? Because his neighborly children ask complex multiplication and division questions, which Max solves in three seconds. It's an easy way to let us know early that he has a gift none of us dreams of having. But is his "genius" a godsend or a curse? As with all talents, it depends on how you use them.

Max lives his life to prove a major hypothesis, that nature has a code and all we have to do is crack it to achieve a new understanding of life. He bases the theory on 1) Mathematics is the language of nature, 2) Everything around us can be understood through numbers and 3) If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.

But Max's main concern is solving this code in order to figure out the stock market. No doubt it begins as a way to make money, but he refuses to work for Marcy, a stock analyst who desperately wants him for capital. I guess Max only uses the stock market because it is so complex and difficult to solve, he thinks of it as a living organism. I still think he has some economic goal in mind.

Max's main problem is that he's a recluse, shutting himself out of the world at large, trusting only his mentor, Sol, an older mathematical genius who gave up on cracking the code. Sol advises that this is a mathematical equation that can't or shouldn't be solved, because to pursue it drives a man crazy.

Max also has another problem, this one physical. Through this obsession, he more frequently has seizures that pound his head (revealed for us through loud, annoying screeching noises) and disturbing hallucinations. There was one too many of these scenes for me, and I was dreading another attack after the third or fourth.

Eventually, Max discovers what Sol already knew and kept hidden, that nature's code may be a 216-digit bug that is revealed as the super-computer in Max's apartment fries. But Marcy the stock analyst and Lenny, a hacidic Jew who belongs to a breakaway cult that believes this code will bring the Messiah to earth, will go to any length to obtain what exists only in Max's brain.

Pi is filmed in gritty black-and-white, which lets the viewer know from the start to expect an artsy-fartsy picture where the director has a vision to share, but the audience generally could care less. Some of the visuals are well done, for example the spirals in the coffee or the smoke.

I had no feeling of sympathy for Max whatsoever, and didn't care to watch him go insane. He's the kind of guy I would avoid on the street or the subway, and I can't imagine him ever going to the mall or a movie. In other words, he's not normal, and not in a good way. The acting wasn't bad, but I'm sure Gullette saw the script and imagined flashbulbs popping as people celebrated his astounding performance in such a fine film. I don't think he's won any awards, but Pi did win for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998.