Ignore the Silliness Enjoy the Ride

Prepare for good old fashioned popcorn-gorging entertainment
By Morgan P Salvo


Limitless plays havoc with the old adage that most people use just 10 to 20 percent their brain power. But what if the other 80 or 90 percent were suddenly made available? Broke, facing extreme writer’s block and rejected by his girlfriend, deadbeat New York writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is convinced that he has no future. Things get real different when a slick shifty figure from his past introduces him to NZT, a new synthetic drug that enhances mental abilities. Immediately after popping a clear little pill Eddie’s neurons get turbocharged. Stoked on NZT, Eddie rises to the top of the financial world. He attracts the attention of tycoon Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) who believes he can use Eddie to make a fortune. He also suffers from terrible withdrawal side-effects, a dwindling supply and bad decisions (including Russian mob involvement) that threaten to destroy any chance of Eddie's future.

Despite its many plot holes and mistakes (the most glaringly ridiculous scene involves ice skates) Limitless is way better than I thought it would be. From the camera–trick psychedelic beginning to the creepy and illuminating sense we get while watching Eddie under the influence, it’s more about enjoying the ride of this flick. Limitless is a paranoid thriller blended with science fiction, propelled by doses of satire. The flick is narration heavy and tends to take the story a little too lightly but most of the time it works. Then of course there’s that darn Meth metaphor. NZT looks a lot like speed: Eddie shows signs of bug eyes, dilated pupils, paranoia, no appetite, and stays up for days. There’s also a warranted amount of delusions of grandeur when Eddie states “I wasn’t high or wired, just clear” or “I don’t have delusions of grandeur, I have a recipe for grandeur”. I bet Charlie Sheen says that to himself all the time.
Limitless rockets alongside Eddie’s progress with a four-digit IQ, ability to learn to play the piano in seven hours, finesse the stock markets, summon lost memories in photographic detail, and speak fluent languages in minutes. As the side affects erupt Eddie skips thru time with no recollection or memory allowing thriller mystery elements to take hold and keeps you guessing as to where this will all end.
Adapted from Alan Glynn's novel The Dark Fields by screenwriter Leslie Dixon and directed with dizzying aplomb by Neil Burger (the Lucky Ones and The Illusionist,). Parodying our zombified short attention span and narcotized age, Burger ingeniously plays the material for straight thrills. Using every camera trick in the book the gimmickry pays off: Quick cuts, fast flashbacks (reminiscent of Requiem for a Dream), fish-eye lens, wide angles, time-lapse zooms, the hits just keep coming.
Acting is sketchy throughout. Cooper (in a constant state of hip five o’clock shadow) shows decent acting chops and proves a range that goes light-years beyond the Hangover, flashing his baby blues and effectively keeping us intrigued as to what’s next.
As girlfriend Lindy, Abbie Cornish is simply adequate due to what little script she has to work with. Andrew Howard’s Russian mobster lowlife creep is disturbingly menacing providing a few of the more intense moments. DeNiro (looking super old) is just not believable as a ruthless corporate raider. His slime-ball big-wig CEO intellect is supposed to be searing, although aside from one decent monologue he seems to be sleepwalking through yet another role.
There’s a moment in The President’s Analyst where in James Coburn as the President’s therapist realizes that he possesses special knowledge due to his role. His face in the elevator when he thinks everyone is out to get him is priceless, his paranoia justified. Limitless infuses lots of those kinds of moments. As Eddie’s path progresses he is constantly looking over his shoulder to see who wants what he has, be it the super itelligence or just the drug itself.

This mystery action thriller really keeps you riveted instead of repulsed. Updated yet old fashioned movie going entertainment, Limitless showcases the pitfalls of addiction, finical corruption, backstabbing lawyers and clandestine deals. And with all the twists and turns it doesn’t take a genius or someone on NZT to put the pieces together. This is the first movie in a long time that causes the audience to root for someone to take drugs. NZT seems great… you can impress everyone, make lots of money and score tons of sex. Still my favorite part was it seems to be a cure for writer’s block. Even with all the pro drug influence Limitless is a cautionary tale about the over emphasis of the pharmaceutics in our culture and the overachieving quest for wealth and material goods in our society while still toying with The Man with the Golden Arm and/or The Lost Weekend-type addiction theories. But in the end the main point of the movie is that after being immersed in murder, corruption, financial power and scandal, where else can a smart guy like Eddie go but politics.

Limitless
Starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert DeNiro, Andrew Howard
Directed by Neil Burger
Rated R




2 ¾ stars