Limitless

Limitless



            My whole life I’ve been hearing that we only use 10% of our brains.  What if they developed a pill that allowed us to access the other 90%.  What would we be capable of?  Limitless deals with the question of what we could do with a 4 digit IQ.

            The movie stars Bradley Cooper (the heir apparent to the aging Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise) as Eddie Morra. Eddie is a down and out writer who hasn’t written anything in years and has just been left by his girlfriend for his lack of drive.  Eddie lives the depressing life of someone who just isn’t making it.  One day, during a chance meeting, Eddie runs into his ex-brother-in-law who used to be a dealer, but is now a pharmaceutical rep.  After listening to Eddie’s story, the cleaned up, but still slimy brother-in-law offers him a not-yet-on-the-market drug designed to help boost one’s thinking abilities.  Eddie is hesitant, but figures as down and out as he is, what does he have to lose?  After all, his brother in law informs him it will cost $800 a pop when it becomes available.

            The drug works better than Eddie could have imagined.  Eddie begins to notice things he never noticed before.  Ways to grow his money on the stock market seem obvious.  He suddenly has cultural appetites.  Suddenly, his cluttered apartment seems so unorganized and inefficient.  His mind is on fire with ideas and drive. He wins his girlfriend back through his new charm, drive, and success.  He finishes his novel in four days.  His publisher is blown away by his new found talent.  He invests in the stock market and is able to parlay $12,000 to 2 million.  Of course this type of success does not go unnoticed. Soon, the prominent investment billionaire, Carl Van Loon (played uninspiring by Robert De Niro) catches wind of his success and seeks him out.  Eddie’s life seems to be on the fast track to a life beyond his wildest dreams.

            Of course, with something this good there has to be a drawback.  Soon Eddie begins to realize that he physically can’t live without the drug and that his mind is going too fast, which causes him to have blackouts and have skipping consciousness.  He goes to find his brother-n-law only to find him dead, a victim of foul play.  Soon he realizes that he is not the first to try this drug and finds himself pursued by many people interested in trying to capture his remaining stash of pills.

            The movie is fun and fast paced.  I would call it a light hearted drama or a dark comedy.  The director, Neil Burger, does an effective and artistic job illustrating visually how Eddie sees the world while on the drug.  I think the movie started too many sub-plots, some of which they never resolve (how, why, and by whom was the girl he had a one-night stand with murdered).  His dealings with the Eastern European loan shark did not seem as well thought out as a man with a 4 digit IQ should have planned.  Still, they were minor issues for a fun movie. 

            If Bradley Cooper is not the newest A-list leading man in Hollywood, he soon will be.  He definitely has the charm and good looks of the Clooney/Pitt/Cruise tribe.  I usually only make Oscar predictions, but I’m willing to bet that he gets the more coveted People magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ within the next 2 years. 

            I felt Robert DeNiro was totally wasted in this movie.  He just reminds me of a boxer past his prime (Raging Bull???).  I can’t think of a single movie in the last several years that he has done that has been impressive.  He’s living off his name.  I felt he phoned this one in.  This movie was owned by Cooper.

            I did think the twist at the end was a weak and unsatisfying way to end the movie.  I’m not saying the movie was strong all around, but have you ever watched a movie where you go “Really!!??? That’s how they’re ending it?”  Well this was one of those movies.  I can’t say that I didn’t have fun though.

I rate this *** stars