I don’t like most movies I see. When it comes to movies, I’m kind of like Mikey in those Life Cereal commercials. I hate everything.
One of my big pet peeves from a movie is when it asks me to continually ignore what I would do if I were faced with the situation, and takes the characters on a path that ignores all logic. This is why I really, really, REALLY enjoyed Limitless.
You’re asked to believe one thing- that Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper) stumbles across a pill that increases your brain power. After that, everything in the movie plays out in a logical fashion. We get to see his character make use of his newfound intelligence, and also deal with the loss (a la Charley from Flowers for Algernon). He then finds a stash of a seemingly limitless supply (like my clever way of working the word limitless into a review for a movie called Limitless? Yeah, I thought so.), and ramps up his consumption, living a fantastic life, before the side effects start to kick in. These lead to the only unanswered question in the movie, and I found that after it was over, I didn’t really care whether he was guilty or not. And I HATE unanswered questions in movies.
Robert DeNiro is used well as a power broker that alternately provides opportunity and attempts to control Eddie. I was happy to see him in a good movie again, it’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to say that.
The way that you get to SEE the impact of the pill is fantastic- great art direction, cinematography, and editing combine with a great eye from director Neil Burger to let us feel the rush along with Eddie. His acts of desperation culminate in one of the coolest things I’ve seen on film in quite some time, and I won’t spoil it for you by mentioning what happens.
The score fits the mood of the film, so let me just sum this up by saying that the movie was well cast, well acted, well directed, well scored, and well written. It’s the best film I’ve seen in 2011, edging out the excellent Cedar Rapids. Go see it, and if you don’t like it, well, we can’t be friends anymore. Assuming we were friends to begin with.
For those of you that require a numerical grade for a movie, here’s how I score it. On a scale of Chapernowne’s number (0.12345678910…) to 3 times pi (3 * 3.14159265…), I give it 3 times e (3 * 2.71828…) Don’t understand? Take the pill and it will all be clear.
P.S. Life cereal is great- you should eat more of it. If I were to rank cereals, and I am sure I will someday, it would be in the top ten.