Limitless’ certainly is

The trick to writing a good screenplay, it seems to me, is being able to come up with something more than merely a good concept. To me, a good screenplay offers up a full story, one that takes you to its natural end and leaves you nodding your head in … well, more in agreement and satisfaction than in frustration and consternation.

That thought was going through my mind as I walked out of “Limitless,” a movie that from its opening sequence up to about the final minute intrigued and entertained me. But then … it let me down. What I realized, when all was said and done, that the screenwriter — Leslie Dixon, working from Alan Glynn’s novel — had painted herself into a virtual corner and had nowhere to go.

The story involves drugs. A particular kind of wonder drug, in fact, that allows the taker to access the full ability of his/her brain. So when our protagonist, Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) gets access to the drug, called NTZ, he quickly evolves from a poser to a dynamo, able to finish the novel he has been struggling on in a mere weekend, to make millions in the stock market by anticipating “trends,” to score with any woman he wants just by using Holmesian powers of deduction to boost his innate charm.

Of course, this isn’t the 1960s. And so any good that drugs can provide must come with a down side. And the down side here is, one, they must continue to be taken and, two, they are damaging to one’s health. Kind of a pharmaceutical Catch-22.

The additional downside, too, is that any kind of sudden change, especially change that involves the making of money, is bound to attract notice. And so Eddie becomes a target — of a Russian mobster he owes money to, of a businessman (Robert De Niro) who thinks he can use Eddie’s talents, and of a mysterious killer who wants Eddie’s remaining stash of the drug.

All of this is presented in a kind of speed rush that director Neil Burger creates, reminiscent of what David Fincher did in “Fight Club.” In fact, Burger rushes through his story so much that it’s only afterward that you might notice some illogicalities … such as how his girlfriend can take the drug only once and not have any withdrawal symptoms; or how licking up some pooled blood (don’t ask) can feed one’s NTZ habit; or how, when we’re told just how dangerous the drug is, we find out ultimately that this just might not be true. At least in Eddie’s case.

This kind of dishonesty would be forgivable, if it weren’t the cornerstone of the story that Burger/Dixon are telling (I never read the novel, so I can’t say anything about Glynn). As it is, it’s kind of like taking Windowpane LSD that has been cut with too much speed.

Bummer, man. Pure bummer.

Below : The trailer for “Limitless.”