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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Limitless

LIMITLESS directed by Neil Burger, written by Leslie Dixon, with Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish and Robert De Niro. An Alliance release. 105 minutes. Opens Friday (March 18). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNN


Limitless takes an intriguing “What would you do?” sci-fi premise and zigzags to some pretty unexpected places.

Bradley Cooper stars as Eddie, a shabby wannabe writer who chances upon a trial drug that lets him use 100 per cent of his brain’s capacity. Within hours of taking his first pill, he’s polishing off his manuscript, and after a few days on the drug (which also helps him become a snappier dresser), he’s making big money on the stock market and attracting mogul Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) and a host of less savoury characters who want some of what he’s on.

Director Neil Burger has great fun visualizing the effects of the drug: colours become supersaturated, the camera zooms up and down its Manhattan locations with the speed of neurons.

And although the film lurches, sometimes awkwardly, from comedy to thriller to romance (Abbie Cornish plays Eddie’s ex-girlfriend), with nary a thought to the drug’s sinister implications, Cooper holds his own with charisma, charm and (of course) natural intelligence.

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