Limitless

Bradley Cooper continues his eerily bland metamorphosis into early-70s Robert Redford in this entertaining Manhattan thriller, a little like the Daniel Keyes story Flowers for Algernon. And as executive producer and star, Cooper makes sure we never lack for unobstructed closeup views of his lovely chops. He plays loser and no-hoper Eddie Morra; once a promising writer, Eddie has blown the advance on his first novel by drinking and goofing off. His publisher girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) leaves him and just when his life hits rock-bottom, Eddie runs into his ex-wife's sleazy drug-dealing brother who gives him an experimental new brain-enhancing pill. Taking one of these a day turns Eddie into a mega-IQ superman with boundless mental power and mentored by Robert De Niro's financial honcho, Eddie becomes a Wall Street colossus and a Zen master of the universe. But uh-oh, some scary bad guys would like to get their mitts on Eddie's pill supply and, anyway, what happens when the drugs run out? Enjoyable, fast-moving stuff on the whole, although a "murder" sub-plot appears to get lost in the edit, and some of the comic possibilities are overlooked. Good, if limited.