Limitless

Neil Burger

The story: Writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is stuck on his novel and then he gets dumped by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish). Things turn around when he is introduced to a drug that unleashes the brain’s full potential and he winds up brokering a huge financial deal for powerful businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro). Based on the 2001 novel The Dark Fields by Irish writer Alan Glynn.

It is popularly believed that humans use only 10 per cent of their brain’s capacity, so the premise that a pill could tap into their vast mental reserves is a seductive one.

The exhilaration of this state of heightened perception is conveyed by the camera hurtling through the streets of New York and into and through vehicles, neatly illustrating the title concept.

What does the protagonist do with such powers? First, he shows off his newfound prowess by dominating party conversations and picking up foreign languages just by listening to audio tapes.

Then – drumroll, please – he plays the stock market and structures a complicated corporate merger. Pragmatic, but not exactly a gripping tale.

Even when the darker aspects of the wonder drug begin to surface, Morra’s story remains uninvolved, in part due to Bradley Cooper’s (from the 2009 comedy The Hangover) somewhat slick performance.

The loopholes in the plot do not help.

Why does Morra not do a better job of ensuring a safe and steady supply of the pills, given how important they are? He should be smart enough to do that.

What is interesting is the notion that there are others who have climbed to pivotal positions in society on the back of the drug. The film suggests there is a larger conspiracy afoot but it does not fully explore this idea.

Towards the end, the movie veers off into so-bad-it’s-almost-good territory.

When Morra is trapped in his apartment by some criminal goons who are after the pill, he is desperate to get a hit of the drug so that he can transform into super-Morra. Let’s just say there is blood involved and much suspension of belief. In the final scene, he demonstrates his fluency in languages by speaking Mandarin to a Chinese waiter. It is stunningly, howlingly, cringingly bad.

Director Neil Burger had previously done the intriguing period mystery drama The Illusionist (2006), but with his latest work, you wonder if his supply of creative juices is running low. Either that or he has had too much of it.

(ST)