Movie Review - Limitless

Limitless (2011)

Starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, and Robert De Niro

Directed by Neil Burger

Was the world really asking for a PG-13 version of the gritty, harsh, and absolutely amazing drug addiction drama Requiem for a Dream?  Personally, I think not, but Limitless is kind of like a low-rent version of that 2000 Darren Aronofsky film complete with the same pulse-pounding music, rapid, fast-paced camera movements and edits, and "inside the body" glimpses of drugs entering someone's blood stream.  It's like a toned-down Requiem for folks like my mom (but she didn't like this movie either).  Try as he might and not helping matters in the slightest, I'm not quite sold on the concept of "Bradley Cooper -- Hollywood Star" despite the fact that his cache is certainly rising in the entertainment industry.  Add Robert De Niro into the mix continuing his trend of choosing rather ridiculous roles to garner a paycheck and Limitless just doesn't really have much going for it.

I was a fan of Bradley Cooper when he first appeared on my entertainment landscape via Alias, but I've never quite warmed to his smarmy attitude that's inhibited nearly every one of his movie characters to this date.  In this flick, Cooper is down-and-out writer Eddie who can't seem to get motivated to write his latest novel.  While roaming the streets of New York City, he meets his ex-wife's brother Vernon, a drug dealer who gives him a special pill called NZT that perks up all his senses and activates his brain into remembering nearly everything he's ever learned throughout his life.  Eddie is amazed and goes to meet his ex-brother-in-law for more pills, but finds him murdered and his apartment ransacked.  Someone was looking for NZT, but Eddie somehow magically figures out Vernon's hiding spot and finds a huge stash of pills.  Time passes and Eddie turns from a bum to a ladies man who finishes his novel and manages to become one of the best stock brokers in the industry, working for the famed Carl van Loon (Robert De Niro).

Perhaps I was a little harsh above on Mr. Cooper.  It's not that he's bad here, it's just that I don't quite see him as a "movie star" yet and this film attempts to put him in that role.  That being said, he comes off much better than De Niro who continues slumming it in his later years.  He's really just become a caricature of himself...there was a moment in this movie where his simple presence and squinty-eyed facial expression made me chuckle, ruining what should have been a rather serious moment.

Still, the biggest issue with Limitless is that is has no clue what movie it wants to be.  Is it a mystery surrounding who killed Vernon and why they did so?  Is it a drama about Eddie butting heads with new boss van Loon?  Is it a romance as Eddie tries to win back his ex-girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) who left him when he was a struggling novelist?  Or is it morality tale about our drug-addicted society?  While it tries to be all of these things, it doesn't succeed at any of them.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+