Hannah's Pick: Limitless

Once again, it is Wednesday which means that the movie to be reviewed is coming from from the vault (or plastic shopping bag) of movies lent to me by my sister in-law, Hannah.  So far I have not run into a movie of hers that I am not able to recommend, and that streak gets put on the line against Limitless, a mystery/thriller with some sci-fi elements thrown into the mix.  It was the very first hit for the still new studio Relativity, who has had a history that is more miss than hit.  Limitless came out in 2011, and stars Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Silver Linings Playbook), Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch... ugh), and Robert De Niro (I am sure no context is needed here).

I was a bit hesitant to watch this movie based on the current output of Relativity.  They have had two monumental flops in 2013 in Paranoia, and Movie 43.  Almost every other movie they have released has failed to meet expectations, except for Safe Haven which came out on Valentine's Day.  I did, however, have some good faith in both De Niro and Bradley Cooper, who is rocketing up my list of favorite actors.

The premise of the movie is that Eddie (Cooper) is an unambitious writer who has a book contract (I am not sure how lack of ambition lands such deals, but we will accept that) and whose girlfriend, Lindy (Cornish from Sucker Punch... ugh), gets fed up with his lifestyle and leaves him.  Eddie one day bumps into a former brother in-law who offers him a drug that will allow Eddie to use his full mental potential.  With reluctance Eddie takes the small, clear pill, and finds that he is more focused than ever, and able to use his mind in 'limitless' ways.  With this drug on his side, he begins a plan that would set him up financially for the rest of his life by working for financial tycoon Carl Van Loon (De Niro).  In his pursuit for an exit strategy he finds that he must get in bed with some unsavory characters who can offer financial backing.  The glorious aspects of the pill are all of a sudden in question as its side effects puts his health and life in jeopardy.

This film follows a typical style of someone riding the high and feeling invincible, the crash back down to reality, and then the scramble to regain what was lost.  These formats exist over all sorts of genres from a rum-runner movie in Lawless to the high flying Top Gun.  Even Iron Man 3 took this style as well.  Before I go on talking about this format and making it sound like I did not like the movie, I really did.  I feel like, though it stayed within a well known formula, it pulled it off well with a very interesting concept and a superb performance from Bradley Cooper.  Cooper's character undergoes quite a transformation while he is on the job, and he is able to nail the nuances between a low-confidence person who walks on the streets staring at their feet, to a man who is able to control a crowd and manipulate every situation he is in with an almost arrogant confidence.

While watching this film, I was reminded a little about The Fifth Estate, the poor-performing move about WikiLeaks which used some art-house style effects to symbolize the information sharing on site.  These effects were a major detractor to the film, as it never felt cohesive or needed to the story that it was telling.  Similar effects were used in this film, and they served their purpose perfectly.  We could get an idea as to how the inside of Eddie's mind started opperating as it gathered information from all corners of the brain, and processed data in a way he had never known.  Sometimes attempts to do such things can seem hockey, but director Neil Burger uses them well and at the appropriate times so they feel organic to the story being told.

Burger also uses colours well to communicate the mental state of Eddie.  There are a lot of drab colours for the first part of the movie, and it is only when Eddie pops the pill that the true brilliance of the would around him is visually seen.  When a key concept of the plot is a person who is riding a high, it is nice to have the visuals reflect that and to flow with his up and down states.  While it is nothing complex, it is effective and helped communicate what was happening.  I have said it before, and I say it again, I love it when people do things to inform the audience without resorting to expository dialogue.  We are smart people, so treat us that way.

In the end, there were some predictable moments, but who cares?  This movie never set out to break all of the rules and take new ground, but to tell an interesting story, and that is exactly what it does.  It reveals the information at a good pace, and the basic plot was simple and not convoluted.  The very end scene revealed some information that I felt wrapped things up a little too well, but it was scripted well and was backed by great delivery from both Cooper and De Niro which put a smile on my face and left me not caring about my skepticism.  I had fun, and what more could be asked of the movie?

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars