Limitless
Relativity Media
What if you had access to a pill that enabled you to utilize your brain's full capacity? How would use this limitless power? Well, if you're Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), an unemployed writer with dim prospects, you would use this wonder drug, NZT, an experimental designer pill, primarily to get rich. But when newcomer-to-the-scene Eddie dominates the financial world, Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro) takes notice and attempts to exploit Eddie to build his own fortune. Now, Eddie must exert his enhanced wits in out-maneuvering assassins who are looking for his stash of NZT, while battling the debilitating side effects of the drug and fulfilling his destiny before he runs out.
The Review: That's right, Eddie Morra, suddenly endowed with immeasurable powers of the mind, doesn't formulate a cure for cancer or devise a plan to solve global warming; there are no altruistic intentions here. Instead, he employs his incalculable IQ to the task of counting cards at the casino, picking up girls at the bar, and amassing a vast fortune for himself. He moves onto the financial scene and soon, the drug evokes strange blackouts and lapses in his judgment. So, remember kids, drugs are all fun and games until you wake up not knowing if you killed a hooker. Though Eddie pays a heavy price with the extreme—and possibly fatal—side effects of the pill and must dodge thugs who are trying to steal his supply at every turn, ultimately, he remains comfortable with the notion that cheating and intellectual shortcuts are fine, as long as you're a nice guy. In other words, the implications of the outcome contradict the lessons that precede them, as if there were an alternative, more fitting finale tossed on the cutting-room floor somewhere, with this inferior, audience-pleasing one left in its place. But all things considered, this is escapist entertainment, not an exercise in ethics, and it’s a fun movie, if you don't think about it too much. Leave the thinking to the geniuses.
Source Code
Summit Entertainment
MIA helicopter pilot, Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), awakens, feeling disoriented and with his last memory of flying over Afghanistan still haunting him, on a commuter train just minutes before it explodes. After the explosion, Colter finds himself intact inside a strange capsule. As events unfold, Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), a mysterious military officer, explains that he is part of a covert experiment which enables him to assume the consciousness of another person the last eight minutes of their life. Throughout the film, Colter is sent back repeatedly to discover the identity of the bomber, so as to avert further terrorist attacks of other targets. After each time-bending episode, he gains one more piece of the puzzle, while falling more deeply for his fellow passenger, Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan).
The Review: In some ways, Source Code reminds me of Groundhog Day; however, it emanates a more metaphysical darkness. Like Groundhog Day, in Source Code, the main character relives the same experience over and over, attempting a final resolution each time. But, unlike Groundhog Day, the consequences of failure are deadly serious. (Also, there’s no groundhog in it.) Its twist on the time travel motif lends it further originality. You see, Colter doesn’t exactly experience time travel, but rather, time re-assignment (I always get those two mixed up); that is, the “source code” invention allows Colter to experience an alternative reality in which he cannot alter the future, but can simply gain clues from the past. The film is taut, not squandering a word of dialogue or frame of film on anything inessential to the narrative; it’s good minimalist stuff. Glassy-eyed Gyllenhaal carries the film in what is often a one-man show, endearing the character with vulnerability and pathos, qualities he simply oozes. His character not only must endure the alienating circumstances of his confinement, left bewildered and alone, and thwart further terrorist attacks, but also must solve the mystery of how he came to be a part of this experiment in the first place. In other words, Colter is having a really bad day—we’ve all been there. My only complaint with the film is that there's little worthy of ridicule in it, and that leaves me with this wholly positive review and no chuckles. Riveting and suspenseful, Source Code gets it right.
The Music Never Stopped
Essential Pictures
Back in 1967, Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Taylor Pucci) ran away from home after his conservative father, Henry (J.K. Simmons), forbade him from attending a Grateful Dead concert, an event symbolic of a deepening divide between their values. Twenty years later, Gabriel is diagnosed with a brain tumor that, once removed, leaves him unable to create new memories. Grasping for a way to communicate with his son and, perhaps, heal their years of estrangement, Henry invokes the aide of musical therapist Dr. Dianne Daly (Julia Ormand), whose innovative, if unorthodox, methods begin to yield results with Gabriel. But can the music Henry once despised bridge the gap between father and son?
The Review: The Music Never Stopped is an oxymoron; that is, it is a good “Hallmark" movie, a pop culture conundrum, if you will. Though similar to those nausea-inducing melodramas in both its linear arrangement and sentimental themes, it rises above TV-grade schmaltz with its realistic portrayal of the dynamic between conservative father and rebellious son. Henry is the kind of dad who incessantly demands his son to turn down that infernal music, while Gabriel is the kind of son who, in turn, refuses to comply with said request. In a pivotal scene, Gabriel even burns a flag, both in protest to the Vietnam War, and in tribute to his friend who recently died there. This does not go over well with daddy and creates a lasting rift between the two. However, twenty years later and cognitively-impaired after a tumor is removed from his brain, Gabriel is unable to form new memories and communicates in nonsensical gibberish, as if trapped in his own perpetual game of word association. You say, "one two;" he says "buckle my shoe." So, either Gabriel’s cognitive functioning has been damaged, or he’s just a smart Alec. Then, something amazing happens. Now, whenever Gabriel listens to the music of his youth, he miraculously transforms, suddenly cognizant of whatever time period he had previously heard the music. Consequently, Henry must put aside old resentments and embrace his son's music if he wishes to reconnect with him. Yes, the film drags at times and indulges in a few too many heart-tugging contrivances, but it succeeds in its depiction of the generation gap specific to that era, and does so with moments of levity. Besides, sometimes simple, clean storytelling without too much fuss is just what the doctor ordered, something to cleanse the CGI-laden palate, if you will. Ok, that's it, the music's over.
