Limitless fun with possibilities

Two movies that explore similar themes, both released in the same month, make for an enjoyable summer. 

A couple of weeks back i reviewed the movie Source Code. While Source Code was about ‘exploding’ possibilities of the brain & mind, Limitless is about the ‘imploding’ ones. Let me explain.

Source Code dealt with the idea of tapping into universal consciousness and an individual brain & mind reaching out to harness that power. In that sense it is ‘explosion’ oriented. Limitless deals with consciousness too, in the sense of a super sense of awareness. A sense that not only makes you see better what’s around you now, but brings alive those mental circuits which are silenced away in the repressed memories, including some that you did not even know you had made, but nevertheless got trapped in the synaptic meshes. Working upon the fact that at any point of time and therefore cumulatively, we harness only a nominal fraction of our minds’ potential, Limitless, based on a novel ‘The Dark Fields’ by Alan Glyn, explores, quite plausibly, what could we really do if we had the power to use the entire brain/mind together. Can the brain & mind really run like parallel processors on turbo charge? If the brain & mind ‘imploded’ in a controlled manner, what would the output be? It’s neatly imagined by the original writer and executed by the director.

The movie itself is finely done. The storyline starts with a narrative timeline which then midway switches into ‘realtime’, but throughout keeps you wondering where this is going, especially about the meta-plot of the direction of NZT and its effect on Bradley Cooper’s Eddie. You can only guess, because this is such a novel theme, you just have to go with the director Neil Burg on ride he is going. The subplots move like a predictable thriller, with a surprise or two thrown in. While Robert De Niro adds style to Van Loon’s character, he is not really shining through. But Bradley Cooper as the protagonist stands out with his performance. 

The storyline ends on an open note. So, while i am hardly on NZT, i can still predict there will be a sequel to Limitless. Definitely look forward to it, if there is one.

PS: This is my first Neil Burg. But i just found out that the earlier movies of his are user-acclaimed too. This will be one busy summer.

Movie 'Source Code' is 'intellectually gripping'

If Inception set me into a tizzy, Source Code had me gripped to my seat, unable to predict how the story would unfold and then it hits you in the face with its concluding climactic surprise. Duncan Jones nailed it, I say.

Let's take a step back and wonder how neatly can you use something as nebulous as Quantum Physics (QP) on  us commoners. A lot of contemporary reading about consciousness tells you that 'it' is all explainable, let me add, probably explainable. So, taming QP to make it do things for us is way way ahead of us. But what are the possibilities? That is what Source Code is all about. True, the concept of parallel universes, changing what could be by moving back in time and fixing it, turning the world back from the fork in time it took have been tested in several movies like the Terminator series etc. But, those were meant to shock and awe, at large. So, what did the director and producers do with Source Code? They decided that they would take a different route and leave out the robots and the cyborgs and instead elaborate upon something everyone understands - maybe a Simple Cat not the Schroedinger's Cat. Gripping?

Source Code offers a melange of romance, hope, suspense, thrill, action, a bit of shock as well (when they reveal what or who Colter really is). It's a compelling performance by Jake Gyllenhaal. Michelle Monaghan, as the gentle, kind, lost and want to be found Christina does a great job and lights up the screen for the romantic dimension of the story. Vera Farmiga treading the human and ethical dimension of the movie does a neat job.
Russel Peters chips in too to tell us that life doesn't have to be grim. One could end it with a smile or a laugh.

Source Code is not to be missed.