Eddie Mora(Bradley Cooper) is literally a man on the edge. Staring down at the city streets from high atop his secluded fortress home, he hears the shouts and screams coming from behind him. Some people he really doesn't want to see are after him, and if they catch him it's curtains. The only way to avoid a very slow and agonizing demise is to choose the quick way out...and jump. But Eddie's too smart for that. Or at least he used to be. There has to be a better way. Neil Burger's film kicks off with a seductive start and the promise of greater thrills to come. The possibilities of where the story could go are literally limitless. It's just too bad the ultimate path it takes leads right into the toilet.
Through flashback we're sucked into Eddie's story. He's the ultimate New York cliche. A brilliant but failed writer, he's quickly dumped by his girlfriend, Lindy(do I even need to say how gorgeous Abbie Cornish is?). With nothing to lose, Eddie downs a dose of an experimental drug called NZT, given to him by his shady ex brother-in-law(Johnny Whitworth), and suddenly his brain is firing on all cylinders. It's a superdrug, designed to give full access to the brain's memory tapping capabilities. Suddenly, Eddie can remember everything he's ever seen and learn anything in a matter of moments. There's just a few major problems. The dose only lasts about a day then wears off. Oh, and there's the issue of Eddie's ex-bro getting snuffed out by some pissed off folks looking for the drug. With an entire bag of the drug at his disposal, Eddie uses it to transform his life. The book? No longer a problem. Being able to talk chicks into bed becomes a snap.Getting his girlfriend back? Just as easy. Along with the incredible smarts comes an insatiable ambition, and that's where the problems really start.
Using his new found skills to kick Wall Street's butt and make a fortune, Eddie catches the attention of high powered business tycoon, Carl Van Loon(Robert De Niro). Carl is a ruthless corporate shark who doesn't quite buy in to Eddie's sudden rise to fame, but wants desperately to tap into the rich kid while he's on a hot streak. As if pissing off one of the most powerful men in the world wasn't enough pressure, Eddie severely underestimates NZT's side effects. He starts having walking blackouts, awake and able to do any manner of things without ever realizing it. His name surfaces in a murder investigation, Russian gangsters start closing in, old men start hunting him down in the streets. It all becomes one big clusterbomb.
What starts off with such promise quickly devolves into a jumbled mess of cliches and time fillers. The first half of the film is nearly flawless, presenting us with a unique take on the old Flowers for Algernon tale, only instead of a surgical procedure the smarts are drug induced. There's a certain freedom established in a story that revels so much in it's excess. Eddie uses the drugs exclusively for his own gain and I had a great time watching him do it. I don't need another morality tale, and this certainly isn't one. But there had to come a slide. There always is, and the reason is that Eddie is just too successful and powerful too fast. The script by Leslie Dixon(based on Alan Glynn's novel The Dark Fields
) struggles to find a way to keep Eddie from achieving his goals. So what we get are multiple scenes of him losing the drugs. Over and over again he loses them and has to find them. He becomes a murder suspect and is even taken to a police line-up, but nothing comes of that. It's just a waste of time. What was a thrilling, innovative film becomes a brainless pile. Even worse, it cheats us out of a major transformation in Eddie's life. I won't spoil that but you'll know it when you see it. Not that I blame director Neil Burger. After a pair of good but not very inventive films(The Illusionist, The Lucky Ones), Limitless is his most visually stunning effort yet. The camera swoops and powers forward in a flash. Multiple versions of Eddie are both a reflection of the facets of his personality NZT has unleashed, and is used to show the many tasks he's able to complete with barely a thought. For many, Bradley Cooper and his blue eyes will be the draw. Presence and personality have never been his problem, and fortunately that's exactly what's called for. Abbie Cornish is utterly wasted, a shame for an actress of her many talents. When your highlight is being chased through the park by an old man there's a problem.
I admire Limitless for it's guts, giving us a "hero" with very few moral hang-ups. Too bad the script goes completely brain dead. Maybe a shot of NZT would do the trick?
