Side Effects

Side Effects, the latest film by Steven Soderburgh is an unexpected thrill ride. It has moments in it that you really couldn't see coming, no matter how hard you looked. It can come at times as a stylized infomercial on the horrors of prescribed anti-depressant narcotics. Thankfully those moments don't last long and because of that, I give Side Effects two buckets of Killer Korn.





Side Effects can seem like a movie that's taking advantage of the craze that is the glut of prescription drugs, and the side effects that may come with them. However, Side Effects is a witty, intelligent movie, complete with double crosses and back stabbings. It stars Channing Tatum who plays Martin Taylor. Martin has just been released from jail for insider trading which is something to pay attention. He's picked up from the prison gates and taken home by his wife, Emily Taylor who is played with cunning effectiveness by Rooney Mara. Emily is a wreck and one day crashes her car into a brick wall for no reason. It's at the hospital where she meets Jude law's character, the too smart for his own good Dr. Jonathan Banks. He wants to admit Emily but she just wants to go home. They compromise and she agrees to become a patient of the hospital's psychiatrist, seeing him multiple times during the week.

While in the good doctors care, Dr Banks wants to see the notes from Emily's last doctor, Dr. Victoria Siebert played by the amazingly beautiful Catherin Zeta-Jones. It's at that meeting does this movie begins to get rolling along. Dr. Banks has poor depressed Emily on all sorts of anti-depressants and she suffers her side effects from them rather publicly. She breaks down in public, she sleepwalks, she can't seem to hold it together in any way and when her husband tells her that they might have to relocate to Houston, that seems to be Emily's breaking point. One day, after shopping for her husband, Emily is home cooking dinner and sets the table, for three. When Martin walks in and sees the table, he immediately blames the pills and heads into the kitchen to talk to his wife. She then turns and calmly does something so unbelievably tragic and then goes to bed.

Her defense for the crime are the pills she's taking of course, the pills Dr Banks has her on at Emily's request. Well from there, things go from bad to worse for Dr. Banks. Emily does no jail time and is instead put under psychiatric watch for the time being. The case though turns Dr. Banks into a pariah and loses him his practice, his fiance, stepson, and almost his mind. That is until he figures it all out, which happened far too fact and far too easily in my opinion. He's not accidentally directed to the answer by a friend in passing or he overhears a conversation that makes him question everything. Nope, he just one day has an epiphany and voila, there's the answer and once he feels he is on the right track of exoneration, he's like a dog with a bone who refuses to give it up.

The movie was written by Scott Z. Burns and for the most part, I give him a thumbs up. The problem with this movie, and potentially the story lies in two parts. One is what I just described above, about Dr. Banks finding the answer too easily, the second is the casting. It is a very talented cast and they all do exceptional work, especially Rooney Mara, the problem is in my opinion is Catherine Zeta-Jones. She's a fine actress, don't think for a minute that I am saying she's horrible, what I am saying is for the role of Dr. Victoria Siebert, Catherine was the wrong choice. Dr. Siebert's character should have been far more frumpy, far more ordinary than the beautiful Jones. In the movie, they want you too believe that some man dumps her for a younger woman when in reality no man would kick Catherine out of bed for any reason. And the crazy notion of a love affair between her and Emily is so far fetched it's hard to swallow.

Still, Side Effects is a good movie with a cautionary tale and it has moments of The Usual Suspects in it, you just have to pay attention, well not really since Soderbergh basically spells everything out in the end for you. Shot by Soderbergh, it has a great look, very clean, sparse but not cold, and it's very stylized. All the people are beautiful and they all dress really nicely. There's not much grit or grime to this movie but I guess that's the world of medical professionals. It's scored brightly and ominously by Thomas Newman and it's a pretty good marriage. The bright music brings out the darkness and hopelessness in the story more than you would think and it's a job well done. Now I heard a rumor than this was Soderbergh's last film and if it is his swan song, it's not a bad way to go out. Check it out and I will see you at the theater!