Limitless is a “narration movie,” by which I mean a movie that relies on narration to tell the viewer almost everything that is going on, all the way through the film. I usually hate this kind of film, but occasionally this technique can work pretty well. Memento is an example of a movie where it worked really well. Limitless is not nearly at that level, but basically the story is interesting enough and varied enough, and the narration is done well enough, that it didn’t bother me too much.

Limitless has a good story idea (what are the ramifications of a drug that gives people access to 100% of their brain’s power), that they managed to translate into fun, interesting story that hangs together quite well. To compare it to similar movies, I enjoyed it more way more than The Adjustment Bureau, and it is light-years better than Inception. Bradley Cooper (an actor that I really never thought much about) turns in a really solid and engaging performance. I even liked De Niro’s performance (I normally can’t stand him.) I really like Abby Cornish, but she has very little to do in this film.

However, this film does involve a gangster, and as anyone who reads this blog will know, there is little I despise more in movies than gangsters. They are so boring and so ugly and so foul and above all so predictable. Maybe if someone somewhere took the time to create a gangster that didn’t look and act just like a gangster is supposed to look and act, then maybe, but that day will probably never come. When the gangster appears in this film, I cringed. The first words out of his mouth: “If you don’t pay me back, I slit you at the waste (he’s Russian, of course), peal your skin up over your head, and tie it in a knot.” Jesus Christ, of course he had to say that!

But I will say that this gangster is not featured all that much in the film, and by the end of the movie the gangster almost became interesting … almost. He winds up having a bit more style than your typical movie gangster, and actually managed to surprise me a bit at the end. Don’t get me wrong, he was still foul, spouting off hateful, supremely violent lines directed at Bradley Cooper, but he was , let’s say, tolerably interesting by the end of the movie. I don’t say this lightly. He may be the only movie gangster that I was not instantly and permanently revulsed by.

My wife and I Netflixed this because it appeared in the highbrow/lowbrow grid at the back of New York magazine as an under-rated movie. I would agree with their assessment, and their placement of the film on the grid. I recommend it!