Starring: Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro, Anna Friel
The tagline to Limitless reads ‘What if a pill could make you rich and powerful?’: to the point, tongue-in-cheek and completely zany. It just so happens that Limitless is all of these things heightened by Neil Burger’s apt way of shooting the simplest action in a frenetic manner, causing the audience to question whether that very same pill has been slipped into their popcorn. Bradley Cooper is a down on his luck writer, his mind blocked by the world weighing him down. That is until he bumps into the brother of his ex (Anna Friel) who introduces him to one tiny pill that will alter many things in his life on a grand scale. Many genres somehow weave their way into the fast-paced set-pieces, from inane action (think a doped up but less extreme Crank) to horror (a cat-and-mouse chase with a mind-enhancing pill as your only getaway). Cooper – taking a break from one-dimensional roles – brings charm to what could have been more smarm. It seems Burger takes his film’s title literally, believing the ambition involved to be just that. Unfortunately, through the pushing of these limits is where the film manages to falter.
Saying that, it’s always nice to see Robert De Niro doing something worth talking about these days…
3/5
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