Movie Review: Side Effects (2013)

"Side Effects" is a thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Rooney Mara as Emily, a woman dealing with seemingly depression made worse by her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) getting released from prison.  A suicide attempt by Emily lands her in the hospital where she meets Jonathon Banks (Jude Law), the on-call psychiatrist, who agrees to release her only if she begins seeing him for treatment.  Banks begins trying Emily on different drugs in order to treat her depression while he learns that she previously was treated for similar symptoms by Victoria (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Emily begins to feel better after being prescribed a new drug called Ablixa but a side effect of the drug causes her to sleep walk.  One evening Emily stabs Martin to death while under the influence of the drug and suddenly she is on trial and Banks finds his world crumbling as his credibility is questioned as a consequence of prescribing the drug.

I found Mara, Zeta-Jones, and Law to be effective in this film and was especially glad to see Zeta-Jones get a juicy supporting role.  The direction and script were also very effective at creating a tight thriller with a fair share of twists and turns.  The only thing I didn't like was Tatum, who seemed a little bland in his performance though in fairness his part wasn't the meatiest.  The ethics of prescribing drugs and also taking money from drug companies was touched on lightly but is an interesting topic that could have been further explored.

Overall I think the casting was good and thought this was a nice thriller with enough twists to satisfy - B+