March 20, 2011 -- This science fiction story about a man who becomes a genius by taking a pill is compelling because everyone would like to think there is some easy way like this to unleash their own potential. Learning new languages is hard, but this pill makes it a snap. What's not to like? Of course, there is always a downside when it comes to pills. Everyone has heard the disclaimers in those TV commercials about pills. Side effects can include death, same with the genius pill.

Eddie Morra (played by Bradley Cooper of “The Hangover”) is a writer with a killer case of writer's block. He's got a book contract, but can't produce, and he's already spent his advance. In a chance meeting with his ex-wife's drug-dealing brother, he is offered a mysterious pill which promises to unlock his writer's block. Desperate, he takes the pill and his writer's block is instantly gone. He cleans up his apartment and knocks off some chapters. Suddenly, he can remember everything in his life and his memories are neatly organized so he can use them efficiently. The next day, the effects of the pill wear off and he's back to his normal, dull self. He needs more genius pills. He goes back to his former brother in law's apartment only to find him murdered, but he manages to find his secret stash of genius pills.

Armed with the pills, Eddie finishes his book quickly and then becomes a stock market trader, running up a fortune, starting with a stake borrowed from a loan shark. His sudden rise to fortune gets him noticed by his ex-girlfriend, Lindy (played by Abbie Cornish of “Bright Star”) who, shockingly, dumped him when he was poor, but takes him back when he gets rich. He also gets noticed by a Wall Street shark, Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro of “Little Fockers”). Van Loon recruits Eddie to help him with a big merger he is planning.

Eddie starts taking more pills to help him think, and begins noticing some side effects, like blacking out for hours and having no memory of certain key events in his life. He also suffers crippling withdrawal effects when he tries to cut his dosage of genius pills. Business competitors try to get their hands on Eddie's stash of pills. The loan shark who loaned Eddie $100,000 to fuel his stock market trading is also after Eddie's pills. The loan shark has gotten smarter, and more dangerous after taking some of the pills. The vultures are circling and Eddie's options are getting very limited, despite the film's title.

Director Neil Burger (“The Illusionist”) uses some nice visual effects to illustrate Eddie's new brain power, and also to illustrate side effects and withdrawal symptoms. These effects reminded me a bit of similar visual effects used in “A Beautiful Mind.” The screenplay by Leslie Dixon, based on Alan Glynn's book, “The Dark Fields” (which was also this film's original title) is fairly predictable, but I liked the ending, although I suspect others will complain a lot about it. The story also raises this question: Why is it in movies that when a loan shark threatens to kill the borrower in a most horrible way if he fails to make his payments, that he never, ever makes his payments? Also, why is it that screenwriters always think you can become an expert in martial arts by simply watching old Bruce Lee movies? While this film fails to break the typical Hollywood mold, it is still entertaining enough in a wish fulfillment fantasy kind of way. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2011 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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