Limitless Review

The Hangover front-man Bradley Cooper plays the down-and-out writer hungry for some motivation, served in the form of a little clear pill, in Neil Burger’s action thriller Limitless.

Cooper plays New York author Eddie Morra who’s plagued with a severe case of writer’s block. An uninspired writer equals an unsuccessful boyfriend in the eyes of Abbie Cornish’s character Lindy, who leaves him faster than a New York subway.  In a state of unprecedented depression, Eddie quickly finds himself accepting a new pharmaceutical drug, codenamed NZT-48, which lets him exploit his full potential and access 100 percent of his brain.

While it might have been enough that Eddie polishes off his novel in a mere four days, gets a snazzy haircut and learns a couple of new languages, he absurdly begins straddling career choices and suddenly takes a stab at the stock market. Before you know it, he’s Wall Street’s MVP and grabs the attention of Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) who used Eddie to navigate though a mammoth corporate merger.

It all seems rosy for a while, as the new and improved Eddie even wins back the affection of his ex-girlfriend. But any smart person knows that a drug which promises to boost your brainpower and amplify your IQ will have its definite drawbacks.  With an inability to relax, he finds that his body is failing to keep up with the speed of his rapidly moving mind. And a missed dose of clear pill results in a gut-heaving Eddie on the side of a Manhattan sidewalk- not the best of looks.

The concept was one that was brimming with potential but a few questionable plot bends see the narrative jumping more unpredictably than Cooper’s mind when he’s on the smart pill. NZT promises only to expand his intellect and sharpness but the film begins to resemble a glossy superhero flick, as Eddie is somehow able to develop supersonic vision and adopts the the ability to foresee the future.

Nevertheless, Hollywood’s favourite blue-eyed boy Cooper gives a promising performance as he commits to the transformations with honesty. The most noteworthy element of the film undeniably remains the compelling cinematography, which has audiences zooming through the streets of New York, letting us experience what it would be like if we’d all taken a dose too many of the clear pill.

My Verdict: Limitless potential. Limited result.