"Side Effects" - Film Review

Side Effects is a “rabbit hole” movie. It takes us down the rabbit hole further and further, becoming increasingly cerebral and intense.

Emily (Rooney Mara)’s husband Martin (Channing Tatum) was just released from prison for insider trading. Soon after his return Emily starts acting strange. Her old mental problems resurface and she attempts suicide. She drives into a wall and claims it was a brief lapse. The doctor on call Jonathan (Jude Law) asks that she take psychiatric sessions with him.

The medications he prescribes for her depression don’t seem to be working. They start having wonky side effects that change her behavior. She erratically sleep walks; something that goes incredibly awry when Jonathan starts giving her a new drug still in the clinical trial phase. He recommends the drug Ablixa at the behest of Emily’s former psychiatrist (Catherine Zeta Jones). The end result is that Emily in a sleep walking state murders her husband.

Soon a trial begins that jeopardizes Jonathan’s career and sends Emily away to a mental institution. Something isn’t right though, or so Jonathan seems to believe, in time to the point of obsession. He’s seeing a conspiracy. Is he right, or perhaps he’s just as mentally unstable as the patients he treats?

As Jonathon investigates the film becomes headier. It turns into a fluttering pulse, pounding in time to its score by Thomas Newman. Here the film becomes an exciting, dark thriller. Director Steven Soderbergh nicely balances the contemplative side of the film with its tenser one, and in turn the film becomes mind-bending and riveting. The examination of pharmaceuticals, and mental and drug culture is a fascinating one, smartly looked at by Scott Z. Burn's script. The film at times has the adrenaline of a drug trip and the murkiness of someone mentally unstable.  

Part of what makes the film so compelling in Mara's performance. The other actors are great but Mara is given the meatiest role. There's a wonderfully seductive ambiguity to her performance. She's beautiful but dangerous; intelligent but vulnerable. We're never certain how much of what we know about her is true.  

Side Effects is a smart, dark, gripping psychological thriller.

Grade: B+