BEFORE: I realize this isn't a comic-book based movie, but it does deal with superpowers in a way. And in a week that's been filled with flight, super-strength, spider-senses, and telekinesis, let's not leave out superpowers of the mind, OK? Linking from "Chronicle", Dane DeHaan was in a film titled "The Place Beyond the Pines" with Bradley Cooper (last seen in "The Hangover Part II").
THE PLOT: With the help of a mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100 percent of his brain, a struggling writer becomes a financial wizard, but is also put into a new world with lots of dangers.
AFTER: Well, as Kurt Vonnegut loved pointing out, what are people but bags of skin filled with chemicals? And the wrong chemicals can make people be depressed, or go insane or even die. So logically it should follow that there are good chemicals, ones that can improve our attitude or our blood flow or brain function. Who's to say that we won't one day find one that makes us smarter?
I'm not sure whether to take this as a commentary on the pharmaceutical industry, or on drug dealers and drug users, or the importance of financial success in today's society, or for that matter, man's inhumanity to man. How ironic that a film about a drug that grants people intense focus doesn't seem to have much focus of its own. It's a good idea to not only say stuff, but also to have something to say.
Anyway, this whole idea that we humans use only 10% of our brain power has been debunked as hooey. If that were true, then you might expect that 90% of the people who suffer brain injuries would have no lasting effects, and that's simply not true. There are people who can train themselves to use their brains better, and some people's memory abilities are better than others, but that 10% figure was probably just generated by someone without any practical evidence to support it.
NITPICK POINT: One of the first things that our hero does with his new brain power is...clean his apartment? Seems like a bit of a waste. Plus, what part of the brain is responsible for cleaning, the anal-retentive/OCD part? I just don't see how "smart" relates to cleaning, unless he decided to call a maid service. The pill might have given him focus and motivation, but what about the physical energy required to do all that work in one night? From what we learn about the pill, nothing suggests that it also works like a Red Bull.
NITPICK POINT #2: If the pill makes someone smart, or expands their brain, or just enables them to tap into the information they've learned and forgotten, how come no one who takes it is smart enough to figure out that there could be side effects, even based on what they've learned before about drugs or pharmaceuticals? The pill does not impair judgment, if anything it enhances it, so why do its users make such bad choices regarding its use?
NITPICK POINT #3: On a similar note, our hero borrows money from a shady mobster to start his investment portfolio with his newfound talents. Once he's made his first million, why doesn't he take some of that profit and pay back the mobster with 100% interest as his next order of business? Again, he's supposed to be SMART now, and not paying someone who might KILL him seems like a no-brainer. I know, if he does that, then we don't have a movie, but it seems like the obvious next step, even for a stupid person.
Also starring Robert DeNiro (last seen in "Stone"), Abbie Cornish (last seen in "Elizabeth: the Golden Age"), Anna Friel (last seen in "Land of the Lost"), Andrew Howard, Johnny Whitworth (last seen in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"), Ned Eisenberg, Robert John Burke.
RATING: 6 out of 10 blackouts
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