Limitless is the kind of serviceable if not terribly inventive thriller that usually hits theaters in the couple months preceding the summer blockbuster season. Bradley Cooper plays a slacker writer who, for reasons that remain inexplicable, has landed a book deal. One small complication: he can’t focus enough to actually start writing it. In one of those twists of fate that are the bread and butter of thrillers like this, Eddie just happens to run into his skeevy former brother-in-law, who just happens to be in possession of a pill that dramatically increases the brain power of the user. Dubious yet desperate, Eddie later ingests the pill. Suddenly, everything snaps into focus. Writing is effortless. Math is easy. He gets laid after some clever verbal sparring with his landlord’s girlfriend. He gets a haircut.
You can probably figure out where the story goes from there. Despite the fame and fortune that follow, Eddie is soon reminded that drugs are bad, m’kay? But not before he entangles himself with a crazy Russian mobster and a shrewd billionaire investor (Robert De Niro in an uncharacteristically restrained performance). One of these entanglements will be resolved in one of the film’s few gross-out moments, a sure sign that a movie is just trying too hard. Still, it’s entertaining and briskly plotted. You could do worse at the multiplex.
