The struggle between faith and science is as crucial today as it has ever been. Orthodoxies on both sides seem pitched in some battle to the death that may end with the final death of God, or a rogue faith devoted to willing Armageddon. Whatever side wins, it is sure to usher in a new way of thinking about the human condition. In that context, Pi serves as a warning, as well as a entry into that struggle. Where is technology leading us? To the end of faith? To the beginning of permanent isolation and utility? Is it possible to find a unifying theory? Certainly, such questions reflect a crisis of the individual as much as of the dogmatic.

The central question, then, of Pi is, does Max's work help us to feel less or more alone? Max (Sean Gullette) is a mathematical genius prone to severe headaches, the result of staring too long into the sun as a kid. He is working on a computer program, named Euclid, that will prove his theory that there are number patterns in life, and that they can be isolated and predicted. The model for this theory is the stock market. As he gets closer to finding the key to being able to predict the string of numbers that would lead to riches, he comes under the scrutiny of shady business types, but also of an Apocalyptic sect of Jews, who believe that Max may be on the route to finding the Kabbalistic string of numbers that is the true name of God.

That the true name of God may also be a permanent string of numbers in the stock market that would make it easy to manipulate is a devilish idea, but one that causes nothing but pain for Max. Even his mentor, himself damaged from his work on the same string, cannot convince him to stop. In between their arguments over the merits of such a quest, they play Go, that ancient of board games whose infinite number of strategic moves reflects the ultimate folly of the pursuit for absolute mastery.

Max is chasing that number in search of proof of both his hypothesis and his suspicion that he is a genius about to crack the secret of the cosmos. In the end, he confronts his Frankenstein and his own hubris, destroying his work and his passion; severe headaches are self-treated with a power drill, which oddly restores him to a sanity that includes a total aversion to even basic math. His new ignorance is the salvation of his mind and body.

The film sets a rich task for itself, aiming to touch on theoretical math, prophecy, madness and the genius, and the risks involved in asking questions of metaphysics. Such a film cannot help but be a failure, since the weight of the task is too great for most thinktanks and theologians, let alone a director with a $60K budget.

But like the myth of Icarus and the event in six year old Max's life that gave him his incredible math skills, the film stares straight into that risky sun and flies as close as can be before flaming out. I'm not sure, though, that the film flames our before making its point. I'm not sure if this was deliberate or not, but the 216 number string that is supposed to be the true name of God is already known; it is the Tetragrammaton, which has long been known in Kabbalah and from the Torah. Does this imply that the radical Jewish sect in search of it are poor scholars, or was that a blooper in research by the filmmaker?

The certainty of their false or skewed beliefs make for a critique of Fundamentalism that is more needed today than it was when Pi was released in 1998. Likewise, the suggestion that a major scientific discovery may be used primarily for material or political gain is equally prescient. While Pi is not as prophetic a film as, say, Videodrome or Network, that does not take away from its power and importance for today's audience, whatever its flaws.