Review: Side Effects | People's Critic: Film Reviews - seattlepi.com

Last year, Steven Soderbergh surprised audiences with Haywire ? an action film about a soldier?s revenge. This year, Soderbergh gives us Side Effects ? a psychological thriller centered around the prescription drug culture. His two films couldn?t sound more different, but they?re both full of twist, backstabbing, and double-crosses.

Side Effects stars The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?s Rooney Mara as Emily, a woman dealing with depression due to the imprisonment and upcoming release of her husband Martin (Channing Tatum). Martin?s return home should?ve been a time to rejoice; instead it sends Emily spiraling into a series of depressive bouts that lead to a failed suicide attempt. At the hospital, Emily is introduced to Dr. Banks (Jude Law) who releases her from the hospital in exchange for weekly counseling visits.

After a few visits, Dr. Banks prescribes Emily the one of newest antidepressant named Ablixa. Emily awakens one afternoon, after taking Ablixa, to find something terrible has happened.

Just when Emily and Dr. Banks? story seems like a by-the-book medical thriller, the film throws a curveball after curveball revealing more layers to an already complex story. Side Effects evolves into a well paced, smart, witty mystery as the film progresses without abandoning the psychological storylines that tie the story together. The brilliance of Soderbergh & Co is how they?re able to mix the different aspects to produce a film that?s as fresh and interesting as it is thought provoking.

The thought provoking aspect of this explosive thriller centers around the question: ??If a crime is committed while someone is on medication, who is responsible??? ? It?s the chicken or the egg argument for the twenty ?first century. Who?s ultimately responsible is a complex question? Is it the person who commits the crime? The pharmaceutical company that makes the drug? Or the doctor who prescribed it?

Rooney Mara gives another amazing?performance that reminds moviegoers why they fell in love with her in Dragon Tattoo. It?s impressive how easily Mara embodies her character Emily by using little nuances from her awkward body language as she sits next to her husband, to the way she stares into the distant like she?s in a medicated fog.

Jude Law lends his talents to play a convincing Dr. Banks. Banks, a doctor who?s passionate about his work, does some light soul selling to pharmaceutical companies in order to compensate for his girlfriend?s unemployment. Law plays Bank?s concern for Emily?s situation upfront, but what makes Law a great at his craft is how underplayed Bank?s life stresses are throughout the film. Bank?s stresses never take center stage, yet are always present in every scene.

Side Effects is a sobering reminder that we live in a world that looks the other way while prescriptions?are filled everyday. Soderbergh doesn?t beat audiences over the head with theories or the?politics?behind the drug industry, and the film doesn?t attempt provide any answers ? it does begin to ask questions about why we prescribe drugs the way we do and what consequences may come as a result.

Grade: B+

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/peoplescritic/2013/02/07/review-side-effects/

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