Limitless - The Smart Thing To Do

Nov

1

Limitless - The Smart Thing To Do

≡ Category: Action, Science Fiction, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Science Fiction/ Action
Director: Neil Burger
Year: 2011

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Limitless starts out with a fairly irresistible premise. You know the old saw that we only use 20% of our brains? Well, what if you could take a pill that would allow you to utilize 100%?

Now, this pill doesn’t turn you into a genius, but it supercharges the synapses of the brain so that you have access to everything you’ve ever read, seen or heard. Making connections between facts is close to instantaneous. This has a snowball effect that makes you appear to be a genius.

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a would-be novelist who happens to be a pretty good bullshit artist. How else to explain that he has a book deal with a publisher before he’s written a word, especially in today’s publishing environment?

Eddie gets a hold of a stash of these aforementioned pills and his life changes. At first, Limitless is fairly predictable, if fun. We’ve seen dozens of these sorts of stories before. It’s Micky and the Broomstick, Pandora’s Box, etc. The hero comes into the possession of God-like power, there is an initial flush of prosperity before events spiral into disaster, and ultimately our hero is humbled. Such power is only meant for God/the Wizard, blah, blah, blah.

But Limitless has another destination in mind. Alan Glynn, the author of the novel on which Limitless was based, comes up with logical and scary direction in which to take his story. Since the story arc is no longer preordained, Limitless becomes quite suspenseful and entertaining. Credit screenwriter Leslie Dixon with a tight adaptation of Glynn’s novel and director Neil Burger for keeping events believable. I’m thinking of one bravura sequence in which Eddie has to elude and outsmart two gun-wielding assassins inside an apartment.

Another strong point of the script is that Dixon somehow makes Eddie likeable, even though he’s basically a loser and a dick. How does she do it? The key is the scene in which Lindy (Abbie Cornish) breaks up with Eddie in a diner. He’s just been completely humiliated and yet he has the grace to sincerely congratulate Lindy on her new promotion at work.

Actually, the same observation could be made of Lindy’s character. She dumps Eddie because he’s a loser and takes him back as soon as he starts becoming a Master Of The Universe. Ick. But at one point, Eddie asks her why she put up with him so long back when he was a loser and she says because she was in love with him.

It’s barely enough to keep us on the side of heroes, but without these brief exchanges spending two hours with Eddie And Lindy would have been intolerable.

Another thing screenwriter Leslie Dixon does right is Eddie’s motor-mouthed patter. It’s hard to write characters that are more intelligent than you, but Dixon pulls it off. For the purposes of the movie, we believe in Eddie’s transformation from dunce to Wall Street Whiz Kid.

Of course, Limitless wouldn’t have worked at all without charming actors like Bradley Cooper and Abbie Cornish in the key roles. Another surprise is Robert Deniro, as financier Carl Van Loon. It’s been a long time since Deniro was impressive in anything, but he pretty much nails the part. It’s easy to believe that Van Loon is as cagey as the character is supposed to be.

Which leads us to the next point. Limitless is a smart, engaging thriller, but it’s something more, too. After the movie was over, I started thinking about what the movie implied, sociologically speaking.

Limitless buys into the notion that rich successful people are that way because they’re smart, which may be true some of the time but by no means all the time. According to Limitless, Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers deserve their wealth.

Here’s another point. What is the first thing Eddie does when he becomes sharper? He starts raking in the moolah. That’s understandable. Pretty much everything in this world requires at least some money. But does he eventually try to solve world hunger or the problem of global warming, or find a cure for AIDs? Hell no. It’s money and power, baby, all the way.

And the filmmakers’ intent isn’t satirical, either. As far as they’re concerned, it’s what any smart person would do. In their view, improving the world is for wusses and weaklings.

The filmmakers aren’t stupid people. They know exactly what they’re doing. And it’s unlikely that they actually hold this world view.

I think what the filmmakers are banking on is that the value system of a large minority of Americans or possibly the majority of Americans, reflects the viewpoint of the film. They believe that Americans are greedy power mongers that, in their heart of hearts, look up to the thieves on Wall Street with envy and admiration.

That’s scarier that anything that happens in Limitless.