Review of Side Effects (2013) by Melinda S — 22 Aug 2013

Smart, engaging and mildly mysterious, Side Effects is a satisfying blend of psychological, crime and corporate thriller that meets the highest standards set by the label "directed by Steven Soderbergh". Even without breath-taking climax or completely surprising twists, the movie benefits from the solid direction, Hitchcock-ian spookiness, compelling detective-like build-up of the main story, sharp moral dilemmas and formidable performances.

Side Effects has all the necessary ingredients to be an excellent delivery of its genre. Director Steven Soderbergh simply knows how to build up the story, to engage the audience and to extract the best from its cast. Throughout the whole movie, he successfully zig-zags between the actors and twists the story via different perspectives. Everything starts when the ex-hedge fund manager Martin ( Channing Tatum) is released from prison, returns to his young wife Emily (Rooney Mara) only to face the tough realities of her constant depression. The story continues into a direction in which a respected psychiatrist (Jude Law) gets involved and suddenly towards the first third of the movie, the story shifts from a psychological drama to a detective crime thriller with anti-corporate and anti-pharmaceutical companies' elements.

While Jude Law and the audience are busy to reveal the mystery behind Emily's actions, Steven Soderbergh has managed very skillfully to expose the bigger and growing influence of the whole medical industry on our society, the rising obsession with prescription drugs and to question the modern morality of doctors and medical advisors. Unfortunately, what deprives Side Effects from truly becoming a classic is the fact that this sub-plot is not further developed and Soderbergh chooses for another twist and another direction of the story.

This, however, has a positive effect on the cast as it makes it possible to explore versatile performances from the actors (this is especially valid for Rooney Mara). The cast assembled for this delivery is just like its director: everybody knows what is she or he doing in every moment of his or her acting. Catherine-Zeta Jones may be feeling a bit uncomfortable in her role as an unscrupulous psychiatrist, but the leading actor Rooney Mara and Jude Law really impress. Law as Doctor Banks delivers somehow predictable performance, in line with the expectations, while the true star is Rooney Mara. Once again after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she plays a character with serious psychological issue, a strange bird which exists better on her own. More fragile and vulnerable, her performance is mysterious and a bit creepy.

Side Effects may not be Soderbergh's best movie, but it is surely a delivery which ranks among his better movies and definitely deserves to be labelled: "directed by Steven Soderbergh". Far from being flawless, it delivers what it promises and pleases the fans of the genre and the neutral viewers. It pleases to such an extent that everyone would hope (after the final credits) that this will not be Soderbergh's last movie, as he had previously announced.