Sean Gullette makes intellectual obsession feel painfully human in Pi, without softening the man caught up in it. We recommend him there for the loneliness beneath the certainty, though the direction sometimes pushes his distress too hard.
Fi1m perspective
In Pi (1998), Sean Gullette's Maximillian Cohen searches for mathematical patterns with a conviction that makes ordinary company seem expendable. Gullette does not make him agreeable, and does not need to: we can understand the desire to be right without enjoying his presence. We felt uneasy watching him because that desire remained recognisable even when the reasoning became difficult to follow. The performance gives a cerebral thriller a person to worry about.
Darren Aronofsky gets a compelling performance from him, though his direction does not always give it enough space. Matthew Libatique's high-contrast black-and-white photography makes bright areas glare and shadows lose their detail, while Matthew Maraffi's production design keeps the surroundings cramped and unwelcoming. Those choices help us share Cohen's discomfort, but Aronofsky presses the distress so relentlessly that there is soon little left to discover about him. The film could have trusted Gullette to convey more of the strain himself.
Gullette also shares the story credit on Pi, an unusually substantial start to his professional film work. Parts followed in Requiem for a Dream (2000), again with Aronofsky, and Brad Anderson's Happy Accidents (2000). The small, unsettling role in Requiem for a Dream suits his intensity, though it gives him less room to work. Most later acting parts were supporting or episodic. His subsequent move towards writing and directing included Traitors (2013), his first feature as director.
We would like to see more work that gives Gullette the space Pi sometimes denies him. He can make Cohen's need to be right intelligible without making him pleasant, and that is enough to sustain our interest when the theories become unpersuasive. The pressure need not be kept at full strength for us to notice him. Start with Pi, provided an evening inside an obsessive mind sounds tolerable.
Biography
Sean Gullette is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He was born on 4 June 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard University.
Gullette first gained recognition for co-writing the story and playing the lead role of Maximillian Cohen in Darren Aronofsky's Pi (1998). He later appeared as Arnold the Shrink in Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) and as Mark in Happy Accidents (2000). His other acting credits include roles in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) and Couture (2026).
Gullette made his feature directorial debut with Traitors (2013). He has also written and produced short films and series, and maintains a long collaboration with Aronofsky.
