Review #11 Side Effects

I’m sad to say but, movies seem to have taken the back seat for me in recent weeks. T.V. shows such as Breaking Bad (what a final season that was, hey) and House of Cards, a series produced solely for Netflix, seem to have dominated much of my free time. Although I concede that it’s a poor excuse seeing as I’m still not caught up with all the reviews I have previously written for reddit, all I need to do for these is copy them over to my blog. But that still seems like too much hard work for me. Either way, here’s what I had to say about Steven Soderbergh psychological thriller, Side Effects.

04/09/13

26/07/13

Side Effects is a superb psychological thriller which shocked me in a way that no other movie has in an extremely long time. This was supposed to be Steven Soderbergh’s last film but after watching it I’m quite glad that it isn’t; as a director, I find he can often be a little hit and miss however he really impressed me with this one. The lives of 4 people are affected by a new pharmaceutical drug for depression and something truly horrific happens as a consequence. Emily, played by Rooney Mara, is the one who is prescribed the drug and things start to spiral out of control from there.

I loved the visual look of this film, the use of soft lighting contrasting against the bold shadows made for some interesting and satisfying shots. The whole movie in fact was very stylish and sleek, it never felt like it was rushing through the plot but it still moved at a pace that still kept me riveted to the edge of my seat. It went it directions I wasn’t expecting but that logically made sense, everything intelligently fell into place despite the route to get there being full of twists and turns where I was constantly second guessing who I should be rooting for. The crux is that nobody is supposed to trusted or believed in, every character treads in areas that are so morally grey I started to question their basic humanity. But, there were clear motives driving each of them, motives like revenge, money and simply a desire to understand all make for compelling viewing.

The acting is all very quite and subdued, Jude Law as the psychiatrist turned detective, gives a performance that could either be seen as incredibly wooden or wonderfully downplayed, either way I think I was leaning towards the latter for the most part. Channing Tatum also managed to prove that he’s worthy of being taken a little more seriously, not too seriously but certainly a little more. The score is rather monotonous but it really serves to continually wind up the tension until it seems as though it is near breaking point, it wasn’t the usual high pitched stringed instruments but a more delicate plodding piano.

Information is given to us like a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the truth and along the way it is achieved by a great use extreme close-ups and shifting in and out of focus. If you’re willing to invest in this movie you will certainly be rewarded at the end with a darkly satisfying conclusion that goes some way to proving my point about how nobody is either good or bad, they all exist in a world of moral ambiguity yet the people who deserve to face the consequences of their actions do so but in a deliciously fucked up way.

8 out of 10. It’s over the top but in a very subdued manner that just seems to work, somehow a little too smart for what it actually is. I thought it was fantastic and am happy that it was recommended to me.