I thought this was a pretty cool concept that made for an exciting movie until I saw how the character Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) sqandered his ability in the selfish pursuit of wealth. While the motives of the character are baffling and often disappointing, the movie shines in its artistic cinematography. It is a bold kaledescopic journey through the juxtaposition of washed out drab color and vibrant vivid hues.
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| Before NZT |
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| After NZT |
The regular world, the way we see it, without being on NZT, and using only a portion of our brain is washed out, greenish in tint. On NZT it is vibrant, colorful, with every aspect popping out in startling detail.
Eddie's first order of business on the translucent tablet known as NZT, is to finish his book he had, up to this point, written nary a word. That in itself is understandable. Using his new brain power to accomplish a task that previously had remained out of his grasp. It is worth noting that Eddie completed the entire novel in 4 days.
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| Finishing a novel on NZT |
But from there the plot gets a little murky. You have to ask yourself, if you had the full use of your brain, wouldn't you do something other than make yourself rich? Not Eddie and his self-centered pursuits. He embarks on a journey to conquer Wall Street and make millions. Having been poor and down and out most of one's life, aspiring to make money isn't far fetched, but being one of the most brilliant people on Earth, wouldn't you use your intelligence for greater things? Like helping other people. Curing disease, advancing technology, coming up with alternate sources of energy? Those things in itself would earn him billions. I'm not sure if the limitations of Eddie's ambitions were due to the character or the screenwriter.
As with most drugs there are side effects. In this case, black outs, time distortion, incapacitating illness, premature aging, frailty and death. How would you like listening to those side effect if this were an FDA approved drug available by prescription? However, NZT is an illegal black market drug and Eddie is horrified to find out the consequences of taking it well after injesting the substance, even doubling it, for quite some time.
Balancing out the journey between dullness, brilliance and insanity is Lindy, Eddie's on again off again girlfriend, played beautifully and amazingly by Abbie Cornish.
Robert De Niro also plays an important role as Carl Van Loon a business mogul who is possibly Eddie's greatest ally or greatest adversary.
The film does end on a positive note and the possibilities for the character are well... limitless. Artistically speaking, and a sucker for psychological movies, I loved Limitless.
Out of five fingers I'd give Limitless 3.5.
