Don't think too hard about it...

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2011)

Eddie Morra is a slacker would-be author with writer's block whose life is slowly falling apart when he runs into his ex-brother-in-law who turns him onto a wonder pill that not only allows its user to harness all the unused potential of their brain, but turns their eyes a vivid, piercing shade of blue. Before you know it, Eddie's using his new hyper-intelligence and baby-blues to make a killing on the stock market and bed various women. He tidies his apartment, services his landlady, writes a book in four days, and gets back with the girlfriend who dumped him moments before his life changed forever. What, you wonder, could ever go wrong?
Limitless is the kind of thriller that could just as easily have been a feel-good comedy and, while it's enjoyable enough, the number of plot inconsistencies and loose ends which plague it are nothing short of shocking. Some examples: Eddie awakes late one morning after an 18-hour blackout caused by his reckless use of the drug. He's due to deliver a career-making presentation to whizz-bang Wall Street financier Van Loon (an agreeably shady Robert De Niro) that very morning but discovers he has no more pills at his flat. There are some stashed in his newly-reinstated girlfriend's place, but instead of dashing over there for some, Eddie decides to try and wing it. Really? I don't think so. After all, this is presumably what that big unexplained plan he had when jumping off a cliff was. Even the ordinarily densest of characters would realise they had no chance of blagging such a deal. Another example: the creators of the drug, their reasons for creating it, and their business plan to make a profit from it, are never explained. Presumably they're producing it to make a profit, and yet one mega-rich tycoon (a minor character we never meet) expires within days because he runs out. Instead of going to a source for more, he despatches a goon to follow Eddie for most of the film but this guy does nothing to try and relieve Eddie of his own stash. I could describe another two or three points without having to think too hard, but to do so would probably give a misleading impression about the overall merits of the film.
Limitless isn't as entertaining (or as smart) as it could have been. A little more effort in the writing department would have resulted in a story that complemented the keen direction and breakneck pace that makes the film's running time fly. One positive aspect about the writing is that, by having Eddie remain an essentially good guy through to the end credits, it avoids the obvious character arc of turning him into some unrecognisable power-crazed megalomaniac who must lose touch with his real self in order to learn what's important in life.