Limitless

Ice Cream Rating: Vanilla (goes perfectly with popcorn)
Director: Neil Burger
Top Stars: Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro
Running time: 105 minutes

Bradley Cooper? The guy whose filmography has recently included many comedies and chick flicks (Hangover, Valentine’s Day, All about Steve)? In a thriller? Hmmm… Interesting.

The question, though, is not how Cooper works for Limitless. It is how he makes the film work for him! Imagining Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon in the film, it might’ve have turned out to be a bit more staid. Cooper, on the other hand, lends a certain swagger to the film, giving us quite the capricious and unconventional ‘thriller’.

If you decide to watch Limitless, make sure you have a huge tub of well-buttered popcorn and some Pepsi drink you love. Because that is how films like this should be enjoyed. Not that it’s a film that one should take lightly. But it is, especially the first half, so delightfully suave with the absolutely gorgeous music score and jaunty camera shots, that it would be a shame to take it too seriously.

Limitless is the story of how Edward Morra (Cooper) revamps his crumbling, disappointing life by taking a pill given to him by his ex- brother-in-law. This weird pill increases the brain's working capacity from its usual 20% to a highly enhanced 100%. What follows is the meteoric rise in his popularity and bank balance and, with that, a menacing slew of enemies and do bad-ers. Things go south side when Morra discovers from his ex-wife (Anna Friel) that the drug is unstable and will cause death if discontinued. However, the increased intake leaves him with blank memory spaces and blood on his hands. Between possible death and petrifying symptoms, Morra is also trying to juggle the sensible girlfriend (Abbie Cornish), the Wall Street boss (Robert De Niro) and a sublime stalker.

About 40 minutes into it, Limitless begins to feel like another film altogether. The bearings become more sinister and you will stuff your mouth with popcorn just to avoid gasping too loudly. The horror comes to a crescendic end with Cooper drinking blood and sticking a needle in a thug’s eye.

And then, we’re back. A continuance of the subtle humour and swagger.

Jo Willems, director of photography breathes most of the life into Limitless. The vivid colour differences between the normal and heightened perception could very well be the essence of the film. Limitless would be nothing but a film with a passable plot and acting if it wasn’t for Willems' work. Maybe, just maybe, the director (Neil Burger) could have, should have made this film a little tighter, deeper, more somber. But then Limitless wouldn’t be the chilled out film that it is.

Note: If I was the CBFC, I would not allow people younger than 16 to watch this film.

More on Limitless: Christian Spotlight, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert, Metacritic, Wikipedia