It actually wasn't at all.
In the movie, it was pretty clear that the guy who said that had no idea how it worked. Almost all of the terrible costs in the movie are incurred by people trying to do things to the guy because he has the drug, rather than because of the drug.
All of the issues with the drug are (ultimately) portrayed as surmountable, and just a technical issue. There's a bit of silly science, but it was mostly just to keep the plot going, and didn't particularly interfere with the major themes of the movie.
I was pretty impressed.
Limitless is a movie coming out this Friday which includes nootropics as a major plot device. I think that the way they are portrayed in the movie, and the subsequent media discussion (if any) about nootropics would be of interest here, even if the movie isn't.
From what I can tell, the movie is about a guy who uses a drug to improve his mental capabilities, uses those to radically alter his life, who is then targeted because its just that genre of movie.
Just a heads up, if anyone is interested.