Intriguing film with which raises big questions.

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2011)

Summary: Meet Eddie Morra a depressed young man whose life seems uninspiring until he finds a pill that changes everything and opens up a world of new possibilities, productivity and leading to a better life but with what consequences.
Life seen through the eyes of Eddie Morra is depressing as his successful girlfriend leaves him and he fails to write even a single word in his newly acquired book contract. Eddie Morra has the look of a writer with long scraggly hair and we find his life uninteresting and uninspiring until happenstance finds it that Eddie has a date with destiny in the form of a pill that changes everything.
Eddie's plight is one that many people can relate too. There are countless times we read something or learned something only to find that we can't recall it even weeks later. To have a pill that would increase our capacity for not just memory but intelligence and critical thinking is an obvious temptation. We find that after Eddie indulges in the pill that things begin to change in multiple directions he is able to complete his novel in one day, he slowly wins back his girlfriend and begins a very lucrative and powerful ascent to the top stockbrocker position in New York City. Throughout the film we see intrigue and murder surrounding this pill as it is illegally obtained and we see others around Eddie that are in pursuit of the "Holy Grail" of psychotropics.
Bradley Cooper's performance is mesmerizing on many levels as there have been other films that play with this idea of enhancing mental abilities but Bradley Cooper's character is believable and unique because despite his enhanced mental capacities he remains the same person and we find that this character is able to pursue goals he never thought possible. He is able to fill out his character appropriately – although we are given little access to Mora's inner world in the movie and find him being driven by a generic sense or almost cultural norm towards achievement, success and power. While Mora's motives for success and achievement could have been better filled out had we understood some of his history but perhaps this generality was intentional to critique or reflect on modern American society's obsession and quest for perfection, power, and omniscience.
In many respects the storyline wasn't particularly original but with the help of Bradley Cooper's acting and a fast-paced scenery change and cinematography allows the story to develop with some complexity beyond the original simple idea behind the film. New York seems an appropriate setting for such a film as the film finds a very fast pace racing throughout the film. We also see detailed cinematography through close-up shots of Cooper and others as well as lighting throughout the film highlight the imagery and fast tempo of the film and constantly remind the viewer that this movie is less about perception and knowledge than it is about the speed of one's perception and increased knowledge.
The movie has much potential to plumb the depths of existential and theological issues confronting humanity in this film but at certain moments the larger questions aren't posed with enough gusto. The question of humanity's quest to see all and conquer all – to build a modern day tower of Babel to have omniscience and omnipotence to bring one's destiny and dreams to life in this moment. This notion of being "limitless" and living the American dream begs the question of what this obsessive pursuit of perfection and power leaves us with. The largely ethical and spiritual question of the movie centers around the cost of this pursuit of perfection. We find that a rival executive of De Niro is suffering from cancer and ill effects of the pill and we see Eddie come to face his own mortality in similar form. As such, the question of the cost of this pursuit is poignant. Spoiler alert – the end of the movie was profoundly disappointing for me in this regard because the film had the potential to reflect upon the cost of humanity's often vain and selfish attempts for power and omniscience often end with destruction and bitter unhappiness but in this film we see that Eddie appears to be clean-cut and running for governor of New York and has "mastered" the compound through chemistry to make the pill "safe." The movie had real potential but failed in the end to provide the critique that the story begged of it's characters and plot. The point of course is that part of the human condition is that we are finite and limited beings despite science, medicine and technology we all are bound by our finitude.