Some sort of allegory about scientific developments and Faustian pacts, Neil Burger's ingenious, extremely violent thriller centres on Eddie Morra, a blocked writer who accidentally comes across an experimental drug that increases his brain power exponentially. As a result, he completes his novel, becomes a sought-after financial adviser to Wall Street's elite and a national celebrity. But there are serious side-effects, both physical and social, and he ends up a sick man, pursued by Russian mafiosi and the NYPD homicide bureau.

It's entertaining enough and unfolds in an extended flashback as Morra (played by Bradley Cooper, an actor with piercing blues eyes of the hypnotic Ralph Fiennes variety) stands teetering on the edge of a parapet, 40 floors above a New York street, contemplating suicide.