No ‘Limitless’

Based on Alan Glynn’s novel The Dark Fields and new on DVD this week, Limitless stars Bradley Cooper as a middling copywriter handed a top-secret test drug that unlocks all barriers hampering humans’ cognitive capacities. Almost immediately he is able to focus sharply on any task, retain mountains of information and successfully master a variety of tasks. But with his heightened intelligence comes a price. Beyond strange side effects like unexplained time lapses and uncontrollable mood swings, Cooper is followed, and as he learns more about this drug’s shadowy origin, he is pulled deeper into a dangerous struggle for control. After raking in a fortune through a few stock market gambits, Cooper is hired by a Robert Di Nero, an ironic moral center to this intriguing what-if thriller. Abbie Cornish and Anna Friel co-star. Rated PG-13.