Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, Tomas Arana
Director: Neil Burger
The curious dichotomy in "Limitless" is that despite the main character's procurement of a drug that enhances his brain function to stupefying degrees, he is never in a genuine position of power. He spends the duration of the film either battling the drug's side effects or evading a plethora of external forces that want the magic pill for themselves. He's essentially a babe in the woods.
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer. Or at least, that's what he tells people when they ask. He does have a book deal, but has long since spent the advance and hasn't written a word. His girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish) has just left him. A perpetually disheveled mess, he now spends his vast off-time wandering the city streets. One day, he bumps into his former brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), a former drug-peddler who insists he's moved on though we suspect otherwise. They meet for lunch, catch up, and Vernon presents Eddie with a small, clear pill. "You know how we can only access twenty percent of our brain?" he asks rhetorically. "This lets you access all of it."
Eddie is skeptical but egged on by the reality that he has, in fact, nothing to lose. He swallows the pill, and notices the effects immediately. Things that he had learned and forgot throughout his life can now be summoned instantly, complex mathematical equations can be calculated in his head, he can speak a foreign language simply by listening to conversations for several minutes. The intellectual possibilities extend into infinity.
He drops the writing gig, and takes up stock trading instead. His meteoric rise in the Wall Street game garners the interest of a smart, shifty financier (Robert DeNiro) named Carl Van Loon, which either sounds ominous or goofy... I haven't quite settled on one. Van Loon is intrigued yet suspicious of Eddie's newfound talent for the Market. His entourage isn't convinced. "Delusions of grandeur," scoffs the financier's business partner (Robert John Burke). "They're not delusions," Eddie counters. "I have a recipe for grandeur." Van Loon is ultimately won over.
Meanwhile, the drug's side effects become so burdensome to the point where Eddie turns to his ex-wife (Anna Friel)--the drug peddler's sister--who has some insider information. All the while, Eddie must navigate a turbulent sea of greedy "addicts" who want the drug for themselves. These include a cheerfully violent mob boss (Andrew Howard), a sleazy lawyer (Ned Eisenberg), and the henchman for one of Van Loon's business rivals (Tomas Arana).
There's something called the "fun house" effect. It's what you experience when you walk or stand on, or stand near something that you think is level, but that isn't or that makes you think it isn't. After a short while, you become dizzy and uncomfortable. In a way, the movie had a "fun house" effect on me. It didn't make me nauseous, but it did manage to somehow keep my perspective at a tilt. I think that's the film's intended effect. The director is Neil Burger, who made "The Illusionist." (The period thriller with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. Not the recent animated movie.) He peppers the narrative with a vast concourse of visual techniques meant to punctuate the mental machinations caused by the drug. They give the movie an effectively uneasy feel without imposing too heavily on the story itself.
What is a little distracting is the screenplay's tendency to drop subplots in mid-arc when they no longer weave comfortably into the fabric of the big picture. One such plot involves the possibility that while on the drug, Eddie may have killed a woman in her hotel room. He can't remember, but is brought in for a police line-up. The witness cannot identify him, so he is released. End of subplot. So, what exactly did happen in that hotel room? I may have missed something, but I don't recall that we're ever told.
Some of the details of the drug's effects on the body's immune system are maddeningly sketchy as well. I tried to follow the explanations as best I could, though I still found it strange that some of the drug's users get sick, others don't. Some die, others don't. Some can be weaned off it, some cannot.
And yet, despite an occasionally uneven script, I still find myself recommending the movie. It's an effective thriller with an intriguing premise, performances that are credible enough, and possesses a wicked visual style that gleefully kneads our perspective. The fact that it's somewhat uncomfortable isn't a flaw in the filmmaking, but rather stems from our realization that while science may one day expand upon that twenty percent access to brain function, nature may have a better reason to keep that limit in place.
* * * out of * * * * stars
