The new film “Limitless” is a modern take on the legend of the man who sells his soul for youth, knowledge, wealth and power. Only he gets away with it and the devil goes away empty-handed.
As the promo line says, “What if a pill could make you rich and powerful (the way it does large pharmaceutical companies). It’s one of those faux literary films like “Inception” all full of the special effects that infantile young men love.
The lead character, Morra, starts out as a feckless loser, moocher, bum. He comes across the “pill” by chance and instantly is focused, energetic and quite brilliant. The pill wears off , so to keep supplied, he has many brutal adventures, kills a few people until he finally makes a fortune and learns how to make the pill safe and abundant (for himself, nobody else).
But what does he do with this power? Become a modern Prometheus, champion of mankind? Who dat? No, he goes to Wall Street, makes bazillions and in the final scene he is running for the US Senate. There are no ethics or morality in this film. For that you need to see “The Lincoln Lawyer”.
Morra doesn’t want to cure cancer, save Africa a la Albert Schweitzer, work out the gaps in Quantum theory, no, he wants to go to Washington, be on CNN, meet Katie Couric.
What an underachiever. As we used to say in high school, “what a pill!"
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