Limitless (**)
Directed by: Neil Burger
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel,
Johnny Whitworth, Tomas Arana
Seen: May 13th 2011
** Out of ****
Limitless starts with an incessant banging without rhythm, a villain
or two trying to gain access to an apartment where Eddie Morra (Cooper) is holed
up, and with this short intro out of the way, it jumps to the opening credits, an
impressive blend of street-level fly-through views and depictions of neural
networks, cool music and all. The narrative then jumps to much earlier, from
where the story starts.
Eddie Morra is a deadbeat, soon to be thrown out of his apartment for
failure to pay the rent, writer’s-blocked writer. His girlfriend Lindy
(Cornish) dumps him due to his state of going nowhere at any rate. He is
recognised on a New York street by Vernon Gant (Whitworth), his dreamy memory
ex-wife Melissa’s brother, and the two grab a drink. Vernon gives Eddie a clear
pill, NZT-48, claiming it will help him with his book, and leaves only a
business card. In a moment of desperation Eddie takes the pill, and finds
amazing results – it clarifies his perception of his environment and his
thoughts to a point where he has perfect recall of everything he has ever seen,
and he can learn anything in the blink of an eye – he becomes a super-genius
with a 4-digit IQ, and can access and use 100% of his brain.
When he returns to Vernon for more, Vernon turns up murdered, and
Eddie finds Vernon’s stock. He finishes his book in no time, starts making heaps
of money via stocks, and develops a cultural appetite, learning about art and
language instantly. He’s found and employed by influential businessman Carl van
Loon (De Niro), but squanders his chance as his dosage runs out during a consultation.
Eventually unsavoury elements are on his trail; NZT-48 being a valuable
commodity; and he starts searching for ways to reach the end of the story
intact. Things never go as planned, and he meets some difficult opposition on
the way – his genius powers being tested continually.
The problem here is that this feels like a movie about smart people
written by rather stupid people with a lot of hindsight thinking, as there is
not a single “wow-that’s-genius” moment in the movie. The writing is lazy, the “specialist”
knowledge on a range of subjects he regurgitates feels like a level one internet
search result instead of true knowledge and genius being shared. Eddie blunders
along like a typical idiot drug-addict, doubling his own dose and just cruising
with little planning regarding, among other things, his future access to more
of the drug (a small scene far too late in the movie quickly addresses this,
but with this much genius you’d definitely think of this earlier, to name but
one hindsight writing idea making it into the movie). Eventually the movie reaches
another violent semi-conclusion, followed by a wrap-up with not enough oversight,
leaving the viewer strangely numb and wondering where they missed all the supposed
intelligence promised by this intriguing premise. Limitless is not nearly as
smart as it wants to be, and because of that also not nearly as entertaining as
it could have been.
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