Side Effects 2013

Emily Taylor despite being reunited with her husband from prison becomes severely depressed with emotional episodes and suicide attempts. Her psychiatrist Jonathan Banks after conferring with her previous doctor eventually prescribes an experimental new medication called Ablixa. The plot thickens when the side effects of the drug lead to Emily killing her husband in a sleepwalking state. With Emily pleabargained into mental hospital confinement and Dr. Banks practice crumbling around him the case seems closed. However Dr. Banks cannot accept full responsibility and investigates to clear his name. What follows is a dark quest that threatens to tear whats left of his life apart even as he discovers the diabolical truth of this tragedy.

Review

I usually love Steven Soderbergh films. And this one starts off with his usual brilliance and had me hooked for the first half of the film.

The first of the film is wellacted wellcrafted smart and involving.

Then comes the crunch without spoiling the second half of the film is quite different. In a sense the "smart" of the film just becomes an exercise in how Ȭlever" the plot can be at the expense of any emotional truth to the characters. I stopped caring for the ensemble as they started to feel like lifeless pawns following the whims of a "how clever am I" plotline. You'll enjoy it if you like a Sunday Afternoon TV Detective movie and like solving the puzzle but this is not great theatre.

It is better than most films but only just. Certainly one of Soderbergh's most disappointing. Rooney Mara makes it still watchable an actress to keep following.