The story goes, Eddie is a writer down on his luck. He can't even get the first sentence down for his book, and his girlfriend dumps him. He ends up running into his ex-brother-in-law who is a drug dealer and who gives him a drug that will "allow him to use all of his brain" and not seeing how his life could get any worse he takes the pill. It works and he finishes his book, and gets involved in the stock market.
I personally really like some of the artistic directions this movie took. When Eddie takes the pill everything gets brighter and more lively, and some of the special effects are just really cool.
The story itself..... is where I have problems. There are many points in the story where plot threads are brought up and either dropped or not fully explained. Not to mention a few other problems. We find out when Eddie drops the first 60 pages of his novel on the desk of an/his editor that he was given an advance. No other books by him are brought up to suggest he had proved he could write, and honestly what editor would give an advance to a "writer" who not only didn't have a single page written, but didn't have a summary or real idea? The movie made clear that Eddie couldn't even articulate what he was "writing" to anybody when asked. I find it highly doubtful that he would have really been given an advance, not to mention being able to be so chummy with an editor.
One of the problems with this movie is that despite supposedly having an extremely high I.Q when he is taking the pill Eddie doesn't act very smart. Sure "math became useful" and he can make thousands on the stock market in a single day, but he lacks any sort of common sense. First he gets a loan from a very shifty loan shark, and then forgets to pay him back fast enough. If the movie was trying to make a point that knowledge doesn't make up for sense (histories greatest minds often have emotional and social problems) then that would have been a legitimate thing for him to do if it was along with his personality. Unfortunately the movie never tries to make any such case and it just becomes a situation where we are told a character is smart but they continue to act stupid.
Not only does Eddie not paying the loan shark on time cause the shark to end up with one of the smart pills, but Eddie is never able to come up with a way to get rid of the guy who now comes to him for more pills. Eddie at one point in the movie claims the pills allow you to "see the answers" but seems unable to figure things out for himself.
This movie also has a sexiest edge to it as well. Which I am very sad to say. When Eddie gets dumped by his girl friend we are supposed to feel sorry for him, which is fine. He is the "loser with a heart of gold" if you will and the main character. What bothers me is his treatment of women through out the movie. The first thing Eddie actually does when the smart pill takes effect is help his landlord's wife with a collage essay... and have sex with her. If I recall correctly Eddie had just been dumped, a few hours previously and he is already sleeping around. He doesn't show any remorse or even being shown as being so crushed by being dumped that he didn't care. (Not that I would condone it anyway) Look I'm not a prude, but the fact is he immediately commits adultery as soon as he is dumped and goes on a parade of sleeping around with random women thanks to his high I.Q. He is never called out on this and is in fact seen as a good thing.
He ends up back with his girlfriend after he gets his life back together. Am I suppose to be happy about that? Besides the fact they were dating at the beginning of the movie there is no way to know they actually "love" each other. The girl comes and goes in Eddie's life as she pleases so I don't feel any real commitment from her either. She dumps him for being a loser, gets back together with him when his life is going right, then leaves him again when she finds out it is all due to pills.
Now don't get me wrong, this may seem like a huge amount of things "wrong" but it is easy enough to ignore them while watching the movie. The ride is fun enough.
This movie does do one thing that really bothers me. The very, very beginning where the movie starts we find Eddie standing on the edge of a building with men trying to get in. He then goes into the all famous "how did I end up here you ask?" which sends us to the real beginning of the story. I really hate beginnings like this, one is because it just seems really cheap, I am already watching this movie. I'm at least this invested, so unless the movie is that bad I'll probably be sitting through the whole thing. It's also cheap because it is such an obvious hook. Like the film makers needed to wave something in my face and go "LOOK!LOOK! SOMETHING COOL REALLY DOES HAPPEN IN THIS MOVIE!! LOOK!"
Someone might be looking at that scene and wonder where is he? Is it something important? Has he been caught doing something he shouldn't? The building looks neat enough, and maybe he has some plan so it will only look like he jumps or something. At least that is what I thought. Sadly though the location served no other purpose besides, looking cool and giving us a hard to break through door so Eddie could stall for time. There is a brief scene in the movie where Eddie is looking at the apartment and says "I'll take it." Just for the scene at the beginning to look cool. And be featured on the poster I suppose.
I'll leave this analyse with just a list of plot threads dropped, or just never fully answered instead of going on and on about them. Oh and I say BS to people who say that any of the "lost plots" are part of the point.
+Who killed Eddie's ex-brother-in-law?
+Did Eddie kill that women on the night he can't remember?
+If he didn't then who did?
+Why was the one guy sent to kill Eddie (not the shark)
+No really, why was the one guy following Eddie, willing to kill random people on the street and his girlfriend?
+How did the guy's boss find out about Eddie having the pills if that is the answer?
+Why did it suddenly get dropped as a problem as soon as the old guy died?
The ending was pretty okay. I liked Eddie's solution to the pills, but I'm not to fond of him running for a political office. Eddie may have been "smart" but he was never overly honest and never seemed to care about others. Besides him proclaiming he wanted "to change the world." Change doesn't mean for the better though.
End feelings: Overall I liked this movie. The actor was charismatic, and the visuals were very nice. The plot only stalled for a little when Eddie was going through the wish fulfilment section of the movie where we are supposed to wish we were him. Besides that it was always at least entertaining enough. The main problem with the movie was with the lack of a point. Is knowledge what you make of it? Does great genius come with great drawbacks? Or no matter how smart we may become we are always the same person inside and will continue to make bad choices because of who we are? I would have liked some kind of theme, besides "being smart makes everything better" which isn't true. In fact it wasn't true for Eddie who continued to make really stupid choices but this is never truly addressed. It is supposed to seem at most just a run of bad luck. Worth a watch if it the idea sounds like someones kind of movie, but not one I'll be rewatching any time soon.
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