Limitless stays within the boundaries

By Kensey King     3/17/11 7:00pm

Have you ever wished that you could take a pill, something more powerful than Adderall, that allows you to access your brain at a faster pace? The movie Limitless essentially examines that scenario through the life of an unmotivated, unimportant book writer. While the title eludes to greatness and grandeur, the movie's actual entertainment value falls slightly above average.

 

The opening scene of Limitless is fairly reminiscent of the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  It opens on a writer, Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper, The Hangover), and his current pathetic life that reaches an all-time low after his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish, Stop-Loss) dumps him due to his lack of motivation.

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Eddie then randomly bumps into his ex-brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth, Factory Girl), who unexpectedly changes Eddie's life for the better. Vernon, in a friendly attempt to help Eddie, introduces Eddie to a blackmarket drug called NZT which he claims is FDA-approved. After some indecision, Eddie swallows the pill and in less than a minute, his mind is focused,  alert and moving quicker than ever before.

 

The main conflict of the plot is thus revealed - how can Eddie continue using NZT, especially after Vernon is murdered? Through a series of twists and turns, Eddie manages to keep enough pills to last him for about a year. During this time, he gains a reputation in the financial market due to his new mentor, Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver). Maintaining his required volume of NZT becomes riskier and more dangerous as several NZT addicts chase after Eddie in search of more pills. In the end, Eddie must choose to acknowledge the danger of his addiction or be forever dependent on NZT and face its nasty side-effects.

 

To identify the actual genre of this movie is a difficult task. It lies mostly in the action category, full of fights, chases and murders. For a couple of scenes, however, a more dramatic tone fills the screen as the audience gets a softer side of Cooper, moving away from his comedic characters found in The Hangover and Wedding Crashers.

 

There are only but a few moments that Cooper's humor plays out, most of it being sarcastic and dry. Essentially the movie is one big adventurous cliff-hanger with some comedic lines thrown in for good measure.

 

Director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) adds dimension to the film through special effects, telescopic zoom and changing camera angles. Burger captures the pill's effect on Eddie by changing the picture and color qualities, allowing for contrast between normally focused and extremely sharp Eddie. By quickly modifying the zoom and clarity of the picture, Burger gives the audience a glimpse of what it would be like to be on a pill like NZT. The technical elements of the film added to its overall quality to the point that the viewer is never really bored.

 

With the plot focusing on Eddie, Cooper carries the acting and tone of this movie. Cooper's acting is substantial but not necessarily Oscar-worthy. He uses a different kind of talent that viewers have not seen before in his scenes, especially the ones involving more action and gore.

 

The supporting actors do the best they can with their roles, but the one-dimensional characters fall flat. Cornish, for example, remains on the same emotional plane for the entirety of the movie. Trying to reclaim his fame in Hollywood, De Niro is quite limited in his role, only able to perform two emotions: mad and madder. Overall, the acting matches the movie's quality - only a hair above average.

 

Limitless investigates a radical idea similar to that of Inception but enters into the darker side of the unknown. While it may not be the greatest film of the year, it is definitely one of the best films currently at the box office. Limitless is not excellent in quality but will entertain most of its audiences.

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