Some interesting ideas and camera-work but falls flat

Rating: 5/10 (21 March 2011)

Interesting idea but I found the execution to go flat. Yes I tend to be a stickler for realism and intolerant of plot-holes but this one really went too far (making millions in a couple days trading stocks as a newbie? (he wouldn't have had the authority to buy that much equity to begin with) or getting enough of a drug someone's blood to give you a fix? (the average human body has eight quarts of blood, lapping up a couple spoonfuls isn't the equivalent of getting a "hit") or forgetting to pay off a Russian loan shark (a genius would have remembered something that might cost him his life)).
Also found the acting of both Cooper and DeNiro to be mediocre. Maybe I've seen him in too many other films, but Cooper seems to have this permanent smirk on his face, even when it doesn't make sense for his character to.
Thought the angle with "Hank Atwood" could have been developed better, indeed the entire concept that others in the business world were also on the drug could have been developed much more fully, and even turned into an implicit societal critique of Wall Street-style "manic capitalism". As it was, I thought the implicit critique was about drugs in general, but antidepressants specifically (the fact that it was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company, rather than a meth lab or coke dealer etc.). Also thought that angle could have been developed better, judging from the other reviews here (no one else else mentions antidepressants, just drugs in general) this message (if indeed that was the director's intent) was too subtle.
Thought Deniro's role would have been much larger after having seen a trailer (I thought he was going to be in the know from the get-go about Cooper's secret, and the movie would be about the power struggle between the two of them). So maybe I was a little disappointed by having the movie not be what I expected.
Did find it interesting at the end that the question of his continued usage was not answered--would be curious to know what others thought--I'm not sure myself (that's the point I guess--it's like a French film, you're supposed to leave the theater and have a healthy discussion with your friends about what really happened).