Side Effects: Smart and Slick

 The release date of Side Effects is deceptive. Normally films that come out in theaters during the pre-Oscar season buzz are either silly blockbusters or just plain silly. But Soderbergh’s latest is quite intriguing. The story and the acting performances keep the audience on their toes, and the direction is slick and smart.

Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) lost her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) to the slammer four years ago. But now he’s finally being released after being charged for inside trading. The yacht, the house and the wealth they once had is now gone, but Martin promises he’ll get it all back. But when Emily drives her car into the wall of their parking garage, it’s clear she’s not dealing with her husband’s return very well. In the hospital, she meets Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law). She convinces him to let her leave if she comes to his therapy sessions three times a week. This is when all the problems truly begin.

 Her depression spirals out of control. She can’t hold it together at social events, at work or even on the subway when she nearly steps to her death. Banks consults her past psychiatrist Dr.Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to gain insight on Emily’s situation. Banks has been prescribing her Zoloft, but after a suggestion from Siebert, puts her on the latest drug on the market, Ablixa. Adds across the city promote Ablixa, “Take Back Tomorrow,” they proclaim to the masses. Banks hopes the positive message will help Emily to “get better.”

 Although she’s finally sleeping, has her sex drive back and improving her relationship with Martin, there’s one side effect. She continually sleepwalks. Soon enough it becomes clear the side effects have dangerous, fatal consequences. The story unravels into much more than an emotional drama, but a clinical thriller. In the industry of health, people are always pointing fingers and someone must always take the blame. Side Effects asks us, “Is the patient, the doctor or perhaps even the prescription drug empire to blame?

 It’s a hot topic in society today. Feel sad? Pop a pill. When Banks is grilled by an investigator he’s asked why he came to America to practice Psychiatry, even though he’s from Britain. He replies that in America when you go to therapy, you’re “trying to get better” and in Britain, you’re “Sick.” It’s a moment that resonates in the film and provokes us to question the need of prescription drugs. Soderbergh navigates Emily’s psyche was precision, leaving it vague as to the roots of her depression or honesty in her emotional breakdowns.

Scott Z. Burns script cannot be overlooked either. He develops his characters intricately, placing truths about their intentions early on in the film. Not till the end do these truths arise again, with much different appearances. Like a classic crime thriller, the clarity in our knowledge of good and evil is constantly skewed by each character’s contradictions. It’s always the characters that slip under our radar that end up with the bloodiest hands. Law is brilliant in his display of Banks; at some moments leaving us sure he has ill intentions, and others that he is the lone vigilante of the story. Just when we grow tired of Mara’s sappy Emily, we see perhaps her innocence is an act in itself. Mara solidifies her future as a leading lady (crazy to think Blake Lively was cast in this role initially). Soderbergh’s intuition about up and coming stars is always right on (Tatum in Magic Mike).

 Soderbergh employs his mastery of music, with a score by Howard Cummings, and his precise, architectural cinematography. The camera confines the characters to both physical and mental prisons. And like a victim of depression, we view the film in gray tones, with grim skies and dulled colors. While eating his breakfast and sipping his orange juice one morning, Banks stares at his television in shock. His world crumbles as Martin’s mother (Ann Dowd) goes on Good Morning America to denounce the use of drugs with a statement from Emily. The overlay of television static, his step-son’s voice and the ominous score is brilliant in capturing how the moment affects Bank’s world on so many different levels. One bitter pill could collapse his family, his career and ultimately the stocks of the healthcare empire. And in this story, the pill threatens more than just one woman’s sanity.