Side Effects:
Emily Taylor's husband Martin is released after years in prison for insider trading. She attempts suicide in a car, and is assigned a psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks. After she kills her husband in a trance, she blames it on her new pills known as Ablixa. After she pleads insanity, she is put in the mental ward for a little while. When she gets out, however, Banks notices some strange things about her case, and ignoring protests from his wife and friends, he pursues the case further, and finds out that possibly Emily was lying about Ablixa's "side effects", and she may be a stone cold killer. Although the film isn't too complex, you do have to pay attention to it, no bathroom breaks here. In my opinion, although the film is a pretty interesting and well-made psychological thriller, I just don't think it's a very interesting closing piece for Soderbergh. In fact, two Soderbergh's recent films, Contagion and Magic Mike, somewhat suffered from the same syndrome, interesting films that were badly advertised (Contagion was more of a drama-thriller than a horror film, and Magic Mike was more of a dark dramady than a chick flick) and also weren't worthy of being the last film Soderbergh directed. His first films seem like the big films you'd expect as a final project (Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brokovich). Other than that, Side Effects is a very effective thriller, but one you might need a longer attention span for. Although it's only about an hour and forty minutes, it feels longer due to the slow pace, which works for the film, but someone expecting a fast-paced thriller may want to look somewhere else, maybe at Soderbergh's own films such as Ocean's Thirteen or Haywire. The acting in the film isn't anything too remarkable, but the performances from the two leads: Jude Law and Rooney Mara (in a role initially given to Blake Lively) are fantastic. Rooney almost plays with your emotions, at first you really connect with her, and feel her pain. But as the film progresses, and you begin to suspect her of more, you distance yourself from her, seeing the possibility of a true monster underneath. Jude Law, however, starts out as a typical doctor character, but slowly progresses, and we really feel his pain as no one believes his claims that Emily is a fraud and is a killer, and the fact that his family life is falling apart due to work, and work is falling apart due to bad press about the case. Channing Tatum is a good actor (21 Jump Street and Magic Mike sold me on that) but I feel this role could be given to anybody. He's just your average guy. Catherine Zeta-Jones basically plays a stone-cold psyciatrist, who slowly reveals a dark side underneath, again, Zeta-Jones is a fantastic actress, but this role is something you could give to any other actress. An interesting note about the cast is that besides Mara, every other major cast member was featured in a film of Soderbergh's. (Jude Law was in Contagion, Zeta-Jones was in Traffic and Ocean's Twelve, and Tatum was the lead in Magic Mike.) The writing is crafty and clever, and the camerawork is great as well. The slow pans and some of the editing on certain scenes add to the thrill factor. Although Side Effects isn't a great closing film for a director, it's an entertaining and engaging thriller that may constitute a second or third viewing. 3.5/5 stars.
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