Emily (Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Martin (Channing Tatum - The Vow) are successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Jude Law - Sherlock Holmes) intended to treat anxiety - has unexpected and dangerous side effects. From director Steve Soderbergh (Contagion Magic Mike Ocean's Eleven Twelve Thirteen) comes a riveting psychological thriller where neither the symptoms nor the cure are quite as straightforward as they seem.
Side Effects is the first half of a great film welded to the second half of a mediocre one. The overall result is still an above-average thriller, but sadly it's not one that does justice to the reputation of its usually-excellent director, Steven Soderbergh.
I know Soderbergh best from films like Traffic and Contagion, in which he took some hugely complex subjects (in the former, the illegal drugs trade; in the latter, transmissible disease) and explored them in depth, through a wide variety of different characters and viewpoints. And upon first glance, that's exactly what Side Effect appears to be trying to do for the pharmaceutical industry.
We're quickly introduced to a number of different players, all of whom are connected by the launch of a new antidepressant drug, Ablixa. Emily (played by Rooney Mara) is nominally the film's lead: a woman who is prescribed the drug after a suicide attempt following the return home from prison of her white-collar-criminal husband (Channing Tatum).
Her psychiatrist, Jonathan (Jude Law) - who has signed up with a Big Pharma company to trial the new drug - prescribes Emily with Ablixa, before conferring with one of her previous doctors (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and discovering that Emily's medical and family history is a lot more complex than he had realised. But by that point, a new personal tragedy has befallen Emily - which may or may not be linked to Ablixa - and the fallout from that single event ends up turning the lives of all of these characters upside-down.
A lot of interesting characters. A lot of complex ideas. A lot of good actors. And for the first hour or so, Side Effects is an excellent film that puts all of these elements to good use.
We see interesting questions asked about society's (over?) reliance on pharmaceutical remedies, and the risk that this could represent. We get ethical dilemmas revolving around the pharmaceutical industry: for example, Jonathan is paid a commission for each patient that he enlists in his clinical trials - so how can he possibly remain free of bias when choosing which drugs he should use to treat his patients? And we see hints that Emily's personal relationships with her psychiatrists may overstep the traditional doctor-patient boundaries, leading to no small amount of disruption to Jonathan's private life.
So far so good. But unfortunately, around the halfway mark, things begin to fall apart.
To describe exactly how the film goes off the rails would be to spoil many of the movie's surprises - and despite its flaws, Side Effects is best enjoyed when you know as little about it as possible going in. But while I can't talk about specifics, I can say that the film goes from being a mature, intelligent and believable story to being a contrived, implausible and frankly silly story within the space of just a few minutes.
Gone is the multi-faceted approach to the various elements surrounding Ablixa: the moral questions and ethical conundrums raised earlier in the film evaporate in favour of a conspiracy-thriller storyline that incorporates all of the potentially-great ingredients of the earlier scenes but combines them to make something that's far less than the sum of its parts. It's the cinematic equivalent of taking caviar, truffles, oysters and champagne and mixing them all up to make an insipid, unappetising soup. It's not terrible, but given what the filmmaker had to work with, it's a big disappointment.
In a sense, Soderbergh has made a rod for his own back by producing so many wonderful films over the past few years, to the extent that even a merely watchable one like this feels like a blot on his CV. Despite that sense of dissatisfaction, though, this is still a compelling thriller of above-average intelligence, with an accomplished cast and some unexpected twists and turns that will keep you guessing all the way to the end. Just don't expect it to deliver on the promise of that great first hour.
I was surprised that Jude Law would have been cast for a film like this as he can be typecast as Watson or something for the ladies. However Law's performance shows his true ability of different characters and challenges.
Many would amuse a bit of a weird film - it also surprise me why haven't something like this haven't been a movie before. Well worth a watch- however if you need to stay focused as there are many turns and twists that viewers will not see coming. 6.5/10
Focusing on the crazy world of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical business, what begins as a sombre story about the dangers of prescription meds (when Rooney Mara suffers dangerous side effects believed to have been bought on by anxiety tablets prescribed by her shrink Jude Law): Twists and turns into a Hitchcockian conspiracy thriller with shady quack Catherine Zeta Jones and other shadowy figures lurking in the boardrooms and clinics of corporate America.
Director Stephen Sodenbergh ('Traffic', 'Che') keeps up the pace by putting mild mannered mind doctor Jude Law in the middle of a scenario that sees his idyllic work and home life unravel, when former patient Rooney Mara's ('The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' remake) testimony threatens to put him behind bars. 'Side effects' is best seen without too much information about the plot and is a well scripted, well acted film albeit one which starts off one way (as an interesting exposé of the psychiatry- pharmaceutical scam) but ends in quite another (the slightly less interesting power plays and De Palma style double crosses). Jude Law gives a subtly powerful performance as the good (or is he?) doctor but its Rooney Mara who steals the show with a complex and difficult role that requires her to run the gamut of emotions. Good film.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Emily (Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Martin (Channing Tatum - The Vow) are successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Jude Law - Sherlock Holmes) intended to treat anxiety - has unexpected and dangerous side effects. From director Steve Soderbergh (Contagion, Magic Mike, Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen) comes a riveting psychological thriller where neither the symptoms nor the cure are quite as straightforward as they seem. Actors Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum & Catherine Zeta-Jones Director Stephen Soderbergh Screen Widescreen Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1) Duration 1 hour and 45 minutes (approx)
Steven Soderbergh directs an all-star cast in this psychological thriller following the effects of one woman's mental breakdown on those closest to her. In the hopes of treating the depression she is suffering in anticipation of her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) returning home from prison, Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) is prescribed the new and untested drug Ablixa by her psychiatrist Dr Banks (Jude Law) after seeking the guidance of Dr Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Soon afterwards, things start looking up for the Taylors but it isn't long before Emily begins experiencing some disturbing side effects which appear to blur the line between fantasy and reality.
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