![]() ![]() Banks please prescribe her something different? Sure, how about Ablixa, the new medication which Dr. Emily has tried many antidepressants in the past but most leave her with undesired side effects: nausea, dizziness, or lack of a sex drive. It starts off with some strange camera angles (Steven Soderbergh serving as his own director of photography as he has for the majority of his films) but then settles down as a thriller, or what will become a thriller once we get to know the characters better. Jon Banks and Mara's psychologically ambiguous Emily are the only two main characters. For those of us who watched "Contagion" (2011) and wanted to focus only on Jude Law's morally ambiguous blogger, Alan Krumwiede, we have finally gotten our wish. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) is exactly what the doctor ordered. But Emily doesn't know what she should be feeling Emily doesn't know how to feel what she should be feeling. Her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum) has just come home from prison, serving time for insider trading. In "Side Effects", Emily (Rooney Mara) is feeling hopeless, suffering from prolonged effects of abandonment issues, unsure how to proceed in her life. But within the conventions of conventional movies, he usually makes really watchable, polished, and visually beautiful movies. He has never been the kind of auteur as the famous greats like Coppola or Kubrick or more recently even Nolan (whatever the excesses of the latter). And you can feel things finely tuned and in control here. Director Steven Soderbergh is a true artist movie maker. So the movie becomes increasingly a thriller with its feet on the ground. The plot threatens to get overly sensational but somehow keeps itself in check. There are surprises (one of them hinted at in the opening scene) and then further and further twists. Then with the apparent side effects of the medication, which loom as a whole new horror story. Then with the pills she's taking for same. Then with her depression coping with it all. The plot, at first, has to do with Emily dealing with her husband getting out of jail (he was in for insider trading). You half expect them to click romantically, but that you'll have to see about. Banks, a truly well-meaning psychiatrist or Rooney Mara as Emily, the patient (in various stages, and not always so well-meaning). I'm not sure who gets more credit, Jude Law in his role as Dr. ![]() This is in a conventional story-telling style but the details are so finely tuned it's a pleasure, and a suspense, all through. Side Effects (2013) Tightly scripted, superbly cast and acted, well-crafted movie all around. ![]()
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