Review of Side Effects (2013) by Ajai K — 06 Nov 2013

The world will never be the same with the advent of prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industry. They are now pervading everyday life but who knew that there could be a dangerous side towards the seemingly harmless pills we all take to cure ourselves of everyday illness. But the movie deals with those pills we take cure ourselves of the problems of the mind, ailments which cannot be cured by mere therapy. Soderberg evokes the paranoia and uncertainty that all psychiatric drugs induce in us with continuous intake and subsequent stagnation of the ailment. Surely there are people out there who will empathy towards Emily Taylor. But the plot gets twisted and then on you're captured in your seats till the confusion clears away.

The opening sequences of the film shows a blood littered apartment, and then cuts to a reality three months prior to the event. Emily is awaiting the release of her husband, Martin, who served four years in prison for insider trading. She is initially thrilled with his release but then it is revealed that she is suffering from several depression episodes and anxiety disorders. This is the main conflict in the film that drives the plot forward which produces different consequences and convolutions of the plot. The illnesses drive her to s suicide attempt which results in her getting admitted in the hospital. She is assigned a psychiatrist, John Banks, who analyses her case and confronts her with the facts, she is then under his therapy treatment and released on the condition she makes timely appointments with him. Emily is given the drugs, and she tries to go with her life as normally as possible but she is unable to do that with the side effects aggravating her condition. She and Martin have a hard time dealing with it. Banks realises that he must go to her previous psychiatrist, Victoria, to get a better understanding of the illnesses she possesses and she suggests giving her Abilixia, a fairly recently produced anti-anxiety drug , which apparently seems to make things better.

This is all the exposition that is required then we're thrown into the chaos of that night when blood is spilled. The drug has apparently caused Emily to sleepwalk and at one such moment of unconscious state, Martin comes to the apartment and he is stabbed four to five times with a sharp kitchen knife and then is bled to death while pleading to Emily to save him. This unexpected incident is what shapes how the plot moves into the final and subsequently all the characters with the elimination of Martin are involved in a complicated legal case which finds Emily to be not guilty uner the plea of insanity. John Banks life is turned around with this revelation and he is fired from all his engagements and left jobless. Strangely enough he finds loopholes in the whole episode that may suggest something sinister. We are now revealed that this was a brilliantly executed plan hatched by Emily and Victoria to acquire money our of clandestine insider trading methods. Banks goes on day and day out to find the truth which is eventually revealed and Emily, who was serving a three-month psychiatric institution sentence reveals the whole plot to him. He tricks both of them, who apparently turns out to lesbian lovers, into thinking that he'll save one of them at the expense of the other but he cunningly plays the game so that both of them are arrested and given justice.

In between all this there are sequences where there are conversations and subtexts where Steven points out that the whole industry is managed by corporations who are competing against each other and have profit and moneymaking as their bottomline instead of having the health of the customer as their priority. Psychiatrists are extensions of this plan and they're catapulted into this business of drugs where unfortunate patients are the victims of the industry. This is the condition that is prevailing in the modern scenario, this cannot be denied, but the side effects that are faced by the patients maybe exaggerated in the case of Martin's murder but still one cannot ignore the many others.

All the actors have done a terrific job of playing out their characters and Steven has emphasised on building up the tension even though the plot goes haywire and suddenly shifts gears towards perhaps an implausible scenario. But he has given emphasis only to these scenes which gives plot and character development and once again acting as his own cinematographer , he produces smooth and varying camera shots from different angular perspectives. The movie ends on a happy note where justice is served but also warns the viewers of the dangers on relying too much on the industry and its products and the inescapable fate that is the modern world of prescription drugs pervading over our daily lives.