Always listen to your mama

Ahhhhh…another stereotypical, psychotic, mathematical genius.

Maximillian Cohen, who narrates much of the movie Pi, is going down and is going down fast. I haven’t seen the movie before our class but it is clear to me that this film is not going to end well. Pi opens with Max describing a time when he was a little boy and he stared directly at the sun, despite his mother's warnings not to. Right away it is obvious that something is majorly “off” with this guy. The director uses this story to show that even from childhood Max has a disregard for warnings. He also disregards the warning from Sol Robeson, his old mathematics mentor. Sol sees that Max is suffering from anxiety and urges Max to slow down and to take a much needed break. Max refuses to take Sol’s advice and continues with his obsession with the 216-digit number string. Max is swimming deeper and deeper into the abyss of insanity and I predict that he is going to drown at the bottom.

Poor Max. Why didn’t he just choose a happier career like law or medicine? I’m sure he knew of the insane mathematician stereotype when he made his career choice as a young adult. Oh, but wait, he didn’t listen to his mother about the sun so why would he listen to society’s warning about a poor career choice.

Poor Max.

I don’t see a happy Hollywood ending in sight.