SIDE EFFECTS

SIDE EFFECTS Review

By Darin Skaggs

     Most movies are made to mean something.  They are made to make you feel happy or sad.  They are here to make a point or explore a theme.  The script is what makes these things possible, but is not always good.  Some films have nothing to say and are purely made to try and be creative and poignant.  Just like Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects.

     The film starts out with Emily Taylor, played by Rooney Mara.  She is depressed because her husband Martin, played by Channing Tatum, has been in prison for a few years.  She has been depressed about this fact for a while and after Martin comes back she starts to take pills to fix it.  She is taking pills from her therapist Dr. Johnathon Banks, played by Jude Law.  Desperate to help Emily, Banks looks to her previous doctor, Victoria Siebert who is played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.  The film takes off from there going many different directions.

     Everyone in the film is doing great work.  Mara gives an amazing performance, maybe one of the best of the year.  Sadly, that does not save the film.  At the half hour mark something happens.  It changes the whole direction of the film.  This moment has potential to add a real interesting aspect of the film, but the movie does something similar to this several more times during the film.  It seems the script just wanted to trick us instead of saying something important.

     The story zig zags not to try to make us think about the film, but it wants us to feel stupid.  It has no point to make except that Mara, Tatum, Law and Zeta-Jones are good actors.  It is not enough to make the film satisfying in any way.