Directed By: Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike)
Starring: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Rating: R for sexuality, nudity, violence and language
Run Time: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Synopsis: Emily Taylor (Mara) has battled depression ever since her husband, Martin (Tatum), went to prison for insider trading. Martin is finally released from prison and Emily attempts suicide, which gets her sent to Dr. Jonathan Banks (Law) who prescribes her a new drug called Ablixa. When Emily has a terrible reaction to the drug, it throws everyone's lives up in the air.
REVIEW
Andrew:
Hello readers! Last night Sarah and I saw Steven Soderbergh’s latest (and
last?) film, one that came out this past Friday, called Side Effects starring
Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum. It’s a movie
that we didn’t really know a whole lot about going in to it. We’d seen the ads
and trailer, we knew it was about pharmaceuticals and turns into a thriller of
sorts, but other than that we didn’t know a whole lot about it going in.
Sarah, what did you think about Side Effects going in to
it, and what do you think of it now that we’ve seen it?
Sarah:
Well I expected it to be more of a traditional thriller I think, but one that
felt like a Soderbergh film, if that makes sense. I was kind of apprehensive
about it because I was thinking the trailer actually made it look more like
Mara’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, one that was suspenseful like
that.
But I actually didn’t like this one. You know, Soderbergh’s
fingerprints are definitely all over this movie, with his stylistic choices and
his characters, but…the actual storyline didn’t really do much for me.
A: Why
not?
S: The
storyline, at it’s base, has been done before and done better. Not exactly like
this film, per se, but the general idea and plot structure has kind of been
done before I just think it’s been done better.
 |
| Rooney Mara (left) plays Emily Taylor, a graphic designer who spirals into depression when her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum), goes into and is released from prison. |
A: Are
there any in particular you can think of?
S: Not
without spoiling anything in this one. Just…throughout the movie you’re trying
to figure out who’s lying and who’s telling the truth, and it seems like it
could be this one person you think has been telling the truth the whole time
but really hasn’t…that kind of plot, you know?
A: So you
didn’t like Side Effects because it’s been done before?
S: It just
wasn’t super original in my mind, or as entertaining as it should have been I
guess. It wasn’t like Magic Mike, you know?
I just…ugh, it’s hard to talk about this one without any
spoilers! But I liked that there’s a character that ends up being a villain,
and I like seeing that person as a villain. I thought that was interesting. But
maybe it was Jude Law…he didn’t do a whole lot for me in the lead role.
I feel like you have a completely different thought process
on this one than I do, so what did you think?
A: I
didn’t love it, but I enjoyed it for
what it did – in that I didn’t expect it to go where it went. You know, ‘cause
it starts off as a social commentary on pharmaceuticals and America’s reliance
on taking pills, then something happens, and if you’ve seen the trailer you
know what I’m talking about and the film then switches…not to a whodunit but
more of a cat-and-mouse thriller. Sort of a battle of the minds, as Jude Law’s
character becomes the main character - a psychiatrist named Jonathan Banks, who
takes on Mara’s Emily as a client.
I just enjoyed the process of Banks figuring out what really
happened. He starts to see things that he thinks are hints at the truth, and
the audience starts to piece it together along with him, and when the mystery
(or is there one??) comes to an end…I honestly never saw it coming.
So like you said – what actually does end up happening,
while you may not have necessarily liked it, and it’s not necessarily the most
exciting thing in the world, I liked how they got there and how the performers
played their characters into it.
S: What
exactly did you think of the performances?
A: I
thought Rooney Mara does a fantastic job as this zombified girl who is too
reliant on drugs, nothing seems to work for her and she just floats through
life. Jude Law…he wasn’t award-worthy but he played exasperated Brit really
well.
S: He
really did!
A: And
Zeta-Jones, you know, was catty and looked good. She’s definitely had some work
done, like you said in the theatre. But her role as Emily’s former psychiatrist
that Jude Law bounces ideas off of, I thought they all played off each other
pretty well.
S: I
especially thought Zeta-Jones was underplayed. I think this may have been a
difficult role for her to play because she herself is bi-polar, so having to be
in a movie that revolves around mental illness may have been tough for her at
times.
I think what bothered me the most about this movie was, to
me, it wasn’t really a thriller. It just wasn’t. When I think thriller I think
of something that keeps me in suspense and on the edge of my seat, and this
didn’t do that.
A: To me
this is a different kind of thriller.
S: I’ll
agree with you that it was a battle of the minds. The whole movie was a mind
game, literally speaking. It was like a puzzle, where we’re trying to put
pieces together along with the doctor.
 |
| Jude Law plays Jonathan Banks, a psychiatrist who prescribes a new drug called Ablixa to Emily, which ends up throwing his entire life into a spiral. |
A: It’s
tough to name a movie to compare this too without spoiling it…
S: Well I
think the trailer was a bit misleading.
A: I’ll
agree there. But there are two particular films I’m thinking of [Editor’s note:
if you truly want to know the two movies I named to Sarah here, hit us up on
Twitter @twoticketsfor and I’ll tell you there] where, like you said, someone
that originally doesn’t appear to be capable of one thing ends up being very
much capable of it in the end.
So it has been
done before and it’s certainly been done better, but I still got a kick out of
that reveal and seeing what comes from that.
S: Ok.
A: It’s
not my favorite movie, and I wouldn’t even say it’s great.
S: No, and
that’s the problem, because I was really looking forward to this one being a
good one. But for me it’s really fitting into that Dumpuary idea that you
mentioned in our Warm Bodies review. This isn’t as bad as some of the other crap
that’s come out this winter, but I just didn’t think it was good.
A: I
wouldn’t put it down that far, not with Gangster Squad or Broken
City. I look at it like this – with Soderbergh, he’s been very hit or
miss with his career. With this allegedly being his last movie before he
retires from directing…
S: Ugh,
this would be a bad one to go out on.
A: …there
have been hits or misses. Hits with films like Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s
13, Magic Mike, Traffic and Erin Brokovich off the
top of my head. And the misses like Ocean’s 12 and to me, Contagion
and, in a commercial sense, Haywire.
S: I liked
Ocean’s
12!
A: So do
I…
S: But of
the trilogy I guess it was the worst, yeah.
A: But so,
I think this movie is more like Haywire, where I really liked it and
so did some people, but there were just as many people who didn’t like it. I
think Soderbergh’s career has been like that the entire way with films that
some people really loved and some really didn’t like, and I think it will be
the same way for Side Effects.
S: Yeah, I
wouldn’t call this a hard miss, but it wasn’t my favorite at all. And it’s
disappointing to me because Soderbergh always
seems to get fantastic casts when he wants them! I mean look at the casts
he gets in movies, it’s ridiculous. So I just think that this cast was a little
wasted, especially Channing Tatum.
A: I
think, if anything, the movie is hindered by the fact that it switches from
Rooney Mara to Jude Law being the focus. And I say that because I find Mara…not
more electric, but more interesting, especially in this movie and The
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Honestly I think it’s too bad Soderbergh
is retiring because I think, like with Channing Tatum who has been in
Soderbergh’s last three movies, I think Rooney Mara could be his female
Channing Tatum.
Alright, so then do you have a final thought on Side
Effects?
S: I’d say
there’s no reason to see this one in theatres.
A: You really didn’t like this one, did you?
Were you…
S: I was
bored by it, yes. And that bothers me. It bothers me when I’m bored.
A: Was it
the plot, or the pacing…?
S: A
little bit of the pacing, yeah. It kept changing, which I suppose should keep
you on your toes, but not when it doesn’t do it for the better. Because it
starts out so electric I thought, then it bogs down a bit and the end is just,
like, whomp whomp.
A: It
wasn’t the strongest ending, I’ll give you that.
S: It
wasn’t. I don’t know. I just didn’t like it.
A: Fair
enough. I personally think it’s one to check out someday, if not necessarily in
theatres, especially if you’re a fan of Soderbergh since it could be his last
film in his oeuvre.
FINAL VERDICT:
Netflix
it!
 |
| (Individual Scores - S: 2/5 A: 3.5/5) |
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