I liked the film although it runs out of juice towards the end. Bradley Cooper carries the movie and De Niro gives strong support.
The first act is by far the best. It makes you want to go out and accomplish things.
The film starts to slow because they needed to make the side-effects much greater. Headaches aren't enough. The consequences had to be great enough to make Bradley Cooper swear off the pills...only to retake them in order to save somebody he loves.
I'm not sold on Neil Burger as a director. THE ILLUSIONIST had the same problem of dragging when the tension should be building. Take the sequence where Cooper's contemplating suicide while the bad guys are banging at his front door. That should be gripping. We should feel Cooper sweat. The banging should get louder. Cooper's thoughts should grow hazier. The tension should be squeezing us. Instead, it's flat. The sequence plays like a bad episode of NCIS.
A better director would have made a better film.
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