His Drug of Choice

"Limitless"

Today's films rely so heavily on visual effects the end result is a feast for the eyes but mere scraps for the brain.  Certain filmmakers have a hard time understanding that visual effects should be used to enhance the story opposed to letting the effects tell the story.  The Illusionist which was director Neil Burger's first mainstream effort was a film that made good use of incorporating visual effects into the plot the film.  Limitless is his third picture and like The Illusionist Burger makes good use of the technology that is available but never overuses it to the point where the effects become a distraction from the screenplay.

Unkempt, struggling New York writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) hasn't started on a single page of his book deal and his girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish,) also just broke up with him.  Eddie is unmotivated to do anything.  One day he runs into his ex-brother in-law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) who offers Eddie an unnamed, untested drug as a sort of pick me up.  The drug is basically a combination of speed and Ritalin.  Once Eddie ingests the tiny, clear pill his whole world begins to change.  He's able to clear his mind, concentrate on a singular task, and get a tremendous amount of work accomplished in a very short period of time.  This drug opens many new doors to Eddie and he begins living life to its fullest.  He even begins to attract some attention from notable business executive Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) after having quickly accumulated millions of dollars from playing the stock market.  Eddie's life seems to be on the up and up until the side effects of the drug take a hold of him and a European gangster starts pushing Eddie to give him more of the drug too.

Limitless unfortunately doesn't quite live up to its title.  We do get to see some of the out of control craziness that is caused by the drug; the film doesn't spend enough time with those sequences though.  Eddie is introduced to a drug that acts as the ultimate stimulant and all he wants to do is turn all that power into the greedy desire to obtain more wealth.  The premise is interesting enough but the characters fall into cliché situations that don't give us the truly wild ride that we are hoping to see.

As aforementioned Burger's choices as the director make Limitless whiz, bang, and pop.  It's these decisions that give the film some life.  Stark changes in the color palette that give a clear indication of when Eddie is on and off the drug are an interesting contrast.  Also the visuals that accompany Eddie when he is experiencing those surges of adrenaline when he is on the drug make for rather exhilarating sequences.  Burger does a stupendous job of communicating to the audience what Eddie is going through.  

Limitless gives us a chance to experience something unique and entertaining but in the end falls into a hole that we've seen too many times before.  While Bradley Cooper does a fine job of creating a likeable looser it's the choices his character makes that leave us wishing Eddie taken a different path.  Burger's knack for visual flare does keep the film afloat for a while but we're soon beached by the run-of-the-mill screenplay.  After a while Limitless squanders its possibilities and leaves us with the feeling of having watched something finite and bound by its own limitations.