Film File - Limitless

They say we only use less than one per cent of our brain, so if a drug came along allowing complete employment of the grey matter - would you use it? This is the basic premise of 'Limitless', adapted from the 2001 book, 'The Dark Fields' by Alan Glynn. A techno thriller set in New York, the film imagines a new breed of smart drug that produces some wicked side effects, but allows its users achieve full use of the brain to become instant experts in finance, culture and languages. It's an idea perfectly in tune with today's information age where vast streams of data constantly envelop us. Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer whose life is quickly unravelling into oblivion. As the story begins, his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) dumps him, his publisher threatens to drop him unless he can produce the manuscript he has promised and his landlady wants to evict him. But when an old friend, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) slips him a tablet of the mysterious drug NZT, Eddie is transformed into an unstoppable torrent of ideas and accomplishments, bringing him the success he has always dreamed of. He goes from being a triple A loser to Albert Einstein-meets-Stephen Hawking. Overnight, he can effortlessly converse in foreign languages. He learns to read music in a day. Women drop at his feet after half a dozen sentences because he's so erudite and charming. On the strength of this little pill - to which he becomes instantly addicted - Eddie becomes accomplished and successful beyond his wildest dreams. However, there is a downside, as the drug has horrible side effects. He has to stay on it or he gets piercing headaches, and when he takes too much of it, he loses blocks of time. Wanting to become rich and famous as quickly as possible, Eddie heads to Wall Street (where else?) and starts building a financial mountain that will catapult him into the rarified world of dazzling Manhattan penthouses, as well as winning him back Lindy. Along the way, he comes into contact with Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), an energy mogul who spots the exceptional qualities of this new whizkid on the trading floor. Director Neil Burger handles the story with consummate ease, and executes some inventive camera tricks and editing techniques to get across the transformation of a deadbeat would-be novelist into the biggest brain in the world. Bradley, whose previous roles in 'The Hangover' and 'The A-Team' marked him out as a reliable but unspectacular presence, grabs the chance of a challenging role with both hands and dominates the movie right through. As the thoroughly debauched character who hits the EuroMillions jackpot through a chance encounter and a little pill, he creates a persona both repulsive and watchable as one is left to wonder if one would make the same moves and mistakes oneself if given the same fountain of intelligence. De Niro, for once, downplays the role of sinister mastermind - a welcome respite from most of his recent outings where pulling his face and talking like Tony Soprano was the full extent of his engagement with the camera. 'Limitless' hooks the attention from start to almost the finish; it only wanes in the last 10 minutes where a too neat wrap-up of loose ends seems a bit contrived and convenient. That said, it stands out as one of the best 'what if?' films for quite some time.