Review of Side Effects (2013) by Chris M — 18 Jan 2014

Whether or not you like Steven Soderbergh's latest psychological thriller Side Effects largely depends on whether or not you think the subject matter its story revolves around is interesting enough for your taste. In this case, you'd have to be especially interested in the field of medicine and the biological effects of whatever specialized pills we consume. I think this subject matter is just as interesting as anything involving government and law, and if you already know how I feel about those, you already know it's not good news. While I believe Side Effects is far from terrible, I do believe it's a missed opportunity given the strong premise that it had.

The premise of Side Effects goes something like this. A woman (Rooney Mara) with severe depression learns that her husband (Channing Tatum), who has served a four-year sentence in prison, is finally coming home. Despite this seemingly joyful reunion, she still feels deeply depressed and attempts committing suicide. When her psychiatrist (Jude Law) gets wind of this, he suggests that she tries out a new prescription drug to cure it. The drug seems to work at first, but when a side effect of this drug causes her to be a crucial part of a murder, complications take place in which the psychiatrist is basically considered the suspect. In able to prove his innocence, he must basically figure out how he became the suspect.

Now this is a very good premise and I'm supportive of a plot with this amount of simplicity and complexity to it. In addition to that, I thought the plot twist in the second half of the film was very well planned out and takes me by surprise as it should. Jude Law and Rooney Mara in general do a good job with their performances. In a nutshell, I feel that these are truly the best elements of the film.

What I was let down by and the reason why I have such a mixed reaction to this picture is the execution. While the film does have a good setup that arouses my curiosity, the delivery of that promising premise falls flat and is simply straight up dull. I'm not sure if it's because the characters are bland and underdeveloped or if it's mainly told in such a lifeless and boring manner or if it's both, but something about the execution doesn't make it even close to as interesting as it should be. Instead of being on the edge of my seat like I should be, I was on the verge of going to sleep the film got me that bored.

Maybe it is like I stated earlier in that any movie or television show relating to certain subjects such as this as well as government and law automatically turn me off. Why? Because anything regarding health, government and law is not what I consider fun. I watch movies and television shows as well as play video games for a good reason which is to mostly escape from that nonsense. My bottom line is if you're going to create some form of entertainment in which the focus is on someone related to professions such as this, you better put in a massive effort to satisfy everybody in your audience regardless of their intelligence.

While Side Effects does at least try to have a cool setup and has a real good plot twist, it just doesn't really deliver on what it promised all of its viewers. I felt like I didn't get to know any of these characters at all, I felt like nothing on screen was that thrilling, and I felt like nothing was really accomplished from this. Maybe I felt this way because the film's direction didn't do a good job at telling me how I should feel about what happens. I know there is good potential in Side Effects, but it's basically not confident enough in itself to the point where I lost confidence right along with it.