Limitless
Bradley Cooper stars as a scruffy writer who has a book contract but no motivation. He loses his girlfriend, Abby Cornish, and is at the end of his rope when he runs into his ex-brother-in-law. This guy, who uses to be a drug dealer, now has some kind of shadowy job with a pharmaceutical company and passes along an experimental pill that allows the user to tap into parts of the brain heretofore unused.
Cooper, after taking the pill, has a burst of creativity, and remembers everything. He goes back to the brother-in-law for more, but finds him murdered. He searches the apartment before police arrive and finds a stash of the pills. In a matter of weeks, he makes enough money on the stock market to interest a grand poobah of Wall Street, Robert De Niro. But, he also is being tailed by someone, and earns the enmity of a Russian loan shark. Also, what happens when he runs out of pills?
The first half of the film is a lot of fun. I'll let go the notion that Cooper is miscast--they try to make him look like a bum but it doesn't work. If they had cast a real schlub in this movie it would have been better, but then again they would have to get another actress, because Abby Cornish wouldn't date a schlub. But anyhoo, for anyone who has ambition but lacks motivation (anyone? anyone?) this really gets the wheels going. I watched this movie wanting that pill.
The movie then degenerates into chases and shootouts, and then allows its hero to get away with murder, among other things. It flirts with the ethics of what the pill does, and then lets them slide, as if the script were just one long fantasy of a writer, which I guess it is. It's based on a novel--I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the book doesn't allow its hero to skate, but a Hollywood movie won't do that.
Still, not bad. De Niro is slumming again, but gave his part a little life. I also liked the Black Keys song during the closing credits.
Comments
Post a Comment