Monica Potter also gives a winning performance as Pre's girlfriend.  But the heart of the film is the relationship between Pre and his coach, Bill Bowerman, played by Donald Sutherland.  The contentious give-and-take between these two strong-willed individuals takes us closer to the actual process of athletic training than any other film has done.  These scenes are crisply written and eloquently played by both actors.  It's no denigration of Sutherland to say that this time the veteran doesn't overpower his youthful costar.  Crudup has blazing charisma, as well as a beautifully textured role that imbues him with the same complexity as the wise old man. 

But the movie survives on the chemistry of Crudup and Sutherland.  It' a pleasure to see two generations meet in a neat acting duel that, for once, ends in a draw." 
 

"Crudup shows all these currents flowing through Pre, and manages to make them evident while Pre is running (technical difficulty 11.0)." 

"... but our sense of Pre's private code as a physical need to defy completely reasonable advice comes from Crudup's visceral acting, much of which is done down at an extraordinary level of detail comprising small gestures and miniscule shifts of expression." 

"In the last third of Without Limits, Crudup has replaced the glorious, relentlessly successful boy Pre with a humanized young man who has learned that the first can be fourth, if not last.  Here Pre's manner is softer; his eyes look to others for more than a reaction to his own feats."