Brilliant nonsense

FILM REVIEW

Limitless
DIRECTED BY: Neil Burger
STARRING: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth
CERT: 15A

We humans only use part of our brain. The professionals probably “discovered” this after one of those lengthy studies that cost a gazillion dollars, though the same conclusion would have been apparent had they simply taken a stroll down the street of a weekend.
If, following some brief observation, there was still any doubt, they need only stop a random passerby for a chat.
Quick, easy and, crucially, cheap.
Like my solution to that subject of endless scientific study: is chocolate good for you? Here’s the answer for free: nobody cares because chocolate is yummy so stop being an eejit and do something useful.
Should any government official be reading this and need more ideas on how to cut similar foolish spending, give me a shout.
But back to the brain. I brought this up once with an expert on these matters (I was in a hospital and he was dressed like a doctor, so I’m presuming) and asked him if there’s anything you could do to make the rest of the brain get up and do something, it being an awful shame to have it just sitting there, lounging around in your skull, killing time.
“Not a lot,” he replied. “Nothing legal, anyway.”
Ah yes. Nothing legal.
NZT is legal. Or so Eddie Morra is told. Eddie (Bradley Cooper) is a washed up writer who’s not having much luck writing his latest book. Being a loser who lives in a hovel and is going nowhere ­ or a tortured soul, the next Hemingway if it wasn’t for this cursed writer’s block, depending on who’s talking, ­ Eddie can’t be trusted for the long haul. Not by normal people, anyway.
Under these circumstances his girlfriend Lindy (Abby Cornish) dumps him and his publisher decides it would be best if Eddie returned the advance money he was paid for a novel that shows no sign of materialising. If he doesn’t catch a break soon, he’ll be back at home working for his daddy and nobody in the movies ever wants that.
By chance he meets his ex-wife’s brother Vernon (Whitworth), an equal opportunities pharmacist who introduces his former brother-in-law to NZT. Vernon claims this wonder drug is safe and FDA-approved and will soon be hitting the market. So why not give it a go in advance?
Eddie pops the pill and, well, the rest of his brain wakes up like a shot. He instantly transforms into a genius, developing total recall of everything he’s ever seen or heard and suddenly the loser is the main man.
He learns several languages in about five minutes, writes that great novel and ends up becoming a financial guru. All of these things he accomplishes when not hopping in and out of bed with a string of fine young women. Maybe brains are sexy after all, though it probably helps if you look like Bradley Cooper.
Wealth, fame and women and the added bonus of a great mind. With just a little pill! As I often ask my wife, sure what could possibly go wrong?
Strangely, I usually ask this right before the car breaks down, or the house goes on fire, or the cat gets shot in the crossfire of a neighbourhood gunfight. Sure enough, poor old Eddie finds there is no such thing as a free neurological resurrection.
The effects, of course, wear off. Naturally the boy wants more. Which is when dead bodies start turning up. Eddie starts to do silly things like getting involved with Russian gangsters and various other shady individuals.
There are side effects, too, a tad more serious than the usual nausea, drowsiness or itchy rash. These ones include long blackouts, possible murderous inclinations and the interesting fact that most users of NZT end up slightly dead.
There’s a great idea here ­ borrowed from the novel by Irish writer Alan Glynn, on which the screenplay is based and there’s some entertainment to be had as it plays out. Quite a bit of that is visual and how director Neil Burger brings Eddie’s drastically heightened perception to the screen is great and not a little dizzying at times.
The idea is one thing; wrapping a story around it and making it all fit the big picture in some logical, or even half sensible way, is another thing. Burger and his writers haven’t managed that and so if you think about it at all, the whole thing is a load of silly nonsense. Maybe the trick is not to think about it if you want to really enjoy it.
Then there’s the fact that, if you take away the great idea in the middle, what you have is really only a standard mystery thriller. In that spirit, the characters are not all that much. Besides Eddie, only Vernon stands out in his brief screen time and though the trailers have been hawking De Niro’s presence, he doesn’t get to bring much to the party as corporation boss Van Loon, except for a monologue in which he reminds the world of who De Niro used to be.
Bradley Cooper is a good actor with a fine screen presence and his elevation to leading man since The Hangover has been deserved. He does a decent job here and it’s not his fault the film doesn’t work like it might have. He will get to do better things.