Realistic addictionBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) has writer's block until his problem is solved with at little pill that enables all of his brain to work, not just the usual 20%. Such is the premise of a mediocre sci-fi thriller Limitless, whose title pretty much describes what someone can do under the influence.
And Eddie does just that, most notably making millions in the Stock Market and attracting mob types who would like in on the game.
Because we know our still Puritan culture will not let Eddie get away with this sin, we see him early on ready to commit suicide and then flashing back to the beginning of his addiction. This flashback device always disturbs me because I like an element of surprise in any story that's not a documentary. Frequently it's just a short way of telling the story.
Lindy (Abbie Cornish) is the Grace Kelly blonde in and out of his life, and a thankless role at that. Robert De Niro as financier Carl Van Loon doesn't fare much better as he's given a stock good-bad business man role to be punctuated by his now well-known grimace, which works in both tragedy and comedy.
The recent spate of sci-fi thrillers like Adjustment Bureau, Source Code, and Battle: Los Angeles are companion pieces to Limitless, all of which try to show how vulnerable we are to the forces that seduce us into evil. Limitless is just more realistic in its exposition of the dependency drugs can create. Eddie is hopelessly addicted although by the end of the film I'm not sure Nemesis has been properly served.
Limitless is a cautionary tale about those who try to achieve with enhancements other than hard work and nurtured talent. In any case, a didactic thriller is welcome at this dead-zone time of year for movies.
"While drugs do offer a relief from anxiety, their more important task is to offer the illusion of healing the split between the will and its refractory object. The resulting feeling of wholeness?no matter how willful the drugged state may appear to an outsider?there seems to be briefly and subjectively, a responsible and vigorous will. This is the reason, I believe, that the addictive possibilities of our age are so enormous." Leslie H. Farber, The Ways of the Will.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com