Directed by Neil Burger
(PG-13)
**
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Limitless is a sneaky film, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. “Enjoyably preposterous” for most of its running time, this would-be thriller about a young man who happens upon a stash of smart pills reveals itself in its final moments to be a “cynical, sharp-eyed comic fable” about our value-free times. When it’s a “wish-fulfillment fantasy,” the story plays to the “sweet spot” of its star, Bradley Cooper, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. As a down-on-his-luck writer suddenly able to unlock the human brain’s full power, the former comedy sideman gives us a protagonist who writes a novel in one night, becomes a Wall Street sensation, and generally exists “halfway between heroism and jerkdom.” The final reel got too “movie-stupid” for me, as Cooper has to deal with blackouts, Russian hit men, and Robert De Niro as an angry tycoon who wants to tap into the pill’s magic. “The pill may be new, but the lessons are old,” said Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. The filmmakers should have paid attention to the central one: “All the smarts in the world won’t keep you from making dumb decisions.”
