paranoia. This film raises the question, 'If the apple from the
tree of knowledge fell right into your lap, would you take a bite?
And then what would you do?'
The apple in this case is an illicit designer drug, NZT. Now,
it isn't just another quick high, but instead, it makes a lie
of the old saying that we only use 20 percent of our brains and
cranks that percentage up to 100. Can you fathom that! The
possibilities are endless in theory and also for the purpose
of this story.
A thirty-something writer Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper 'The A-Team'),
is divorced with a terminal case of writer's block. Here is a guy
who was just dumped by his most recent girlfriend Lindy (Abbie
Cornish 'A Good Year'), because he's going nowhere at the speed
of light. By circumstance, our slacker finds himself in possession
of a stash of the wonder pill.
Suddenly, Eddie -- seducing the worlds of writing, women and
Wall Street -- has got massive amounts of game and brains, attracting
the attention of both barons of the boardroom like Carl Van Loon
(Robert De Niro 'Little Fockers'), bullies on the street like
Russian mobster Gennady (Andrew Howard), and some mysterious
third guy who keeps giving him the side eye and chasing him
around Manhattan.
And did someone mention side effects? Baby, this apple bites
back. This is where Eddie might be starting to realize that
getting really smart really quickly may have been a dumb thing
to do.
Bradley Cooper is great and really plays up both sides of that
coin, the intellect and when the drug wears out, the pauper.
I have been a big fan of his since the series 'Alias'. I always
enjoyed him because he stretches and doesn't just skate on his
looks. He tries to be diverse in his choice of roles. Lately,
he's seen in raunchy fare like 'The Hangover' and plodding
rom-coms ('Wedding Crashers' – didn't you hate him? 'He's Just
Not That Into You' – again the cad and we loved him in
'Valentine's Day').
'Limitless', based on the novel 'The Dark Fields' by Alan
Glynn and directed with a nimble efficiency and sense of visual
humor by Neil Burger ('Interview with the Assassin'), is at
times reminiscent of the work of Danny Boyle ('127 Hours',
'Slumdog Millionaire'), it never takes itself too seriously
but still manages to be suspenseful and clever. Burger, Cooper
and De Niro opened up what was a very cluttered book and
injected it with a jolt of cinematic electricity.
Smart move - smart movie.
* From Where I Sit!
March 27, 2011
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