Limitless and UCF

On Wednesday, I watch Limitless; a new-ish movie starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. It is the story of a writer named Eddie Morra whose having trouble writing his book. He meets up with an acquaintance by chance who offers him a very secret drug with extraordinary power. Once Eddie, played by Bradley Cooper, starts taking the drug his life is almost instantly better. He starts taking it once a day and becomes extremely reliant on it. Without it, he cannot tap into his full potential. Unfortunately, Eddie ends up trading his problems for bigger ones and his life gets very chaotic. I thought it was filmed very well and there were many great performances. It was directed by Neil Burger, who also directed The Illusionist. If you are familiar with The Illusionist and haven't seen Limitless you probably geussed that this film has great visuals (you would be right).

Then Thursday in my UCF (Understanding Christian Faith) class, we started to talk about how people unaware of Christianity, attempted to escape their despair. Many people within the Roman Empire during the very early A.D.s decided alcohol and sex could get them closest to an experience outside of this life. Simply put, they got drunk and had orgies, always trying to maintain that high. But this solution turned out to be very ineffective, and these people woke up every morning back where they started. How unsatisfactory, they thought. Then they discovered Christianity and learned about the continuous, intimate relationship with God that could be achieved. That emptiness they felt was finally filled.

During class I realized how similar Eddie Morra was to the laypeople of the Roman Empire. The drug Eddie was taking helped him ignore his despair and failures, even eliminate them. He tried to become the perfect version of himself but he could not hold on to that feeling. The way I see it, Eddie's drugs were his drunken orgy. Just like the Roman people that looked for a way to get rid of problems in this world, Eddie could only rely on this drug long enough to realize its faults.

Whether you look this far into the movie or not, Limitless is still very good.