- Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects is one of those wonderful movies that veers off in completely different directions from whatever you were expecting. In fact, that statement is still true halfway through the film and maybe even further in than that. The opening credits advertise images of bloody footprints leading past a model sailboat. Rewind three months, and a young woman named Emily (Rooney Mara) shows the telltale signs of severe depression once her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) returns home from prison. After Emily intentionally rams her car into a wall, a psychiatrist named Dr. Banks (Jude Law) steps in to offer her a mix of counseling and medication. Soonafter, she stabs her husband to death while experiencing an apparent drug-induced sleepwalking episode. The bloody footprints were hers -- mystery solved.
- Actually, it's more accurate to say that the mystery shifts from a whodunit to a who-to-blame. Although Emily wielded the knife, she was taking the experimental drug "Ablixa" (may induce sleepwalking) and claims no memories of the killing. Sure, Martin may have been an ex-con, but insider trading is hardly grounds for justifiable homicide. Dr. Banks seemed to be doing his honest best to help Emily, even while accepting money to conduct a clinical trial with an untested drug. For that matter, maybe the relationship between pharmaceutical companies, health professionals, and their patients is to blame. Certainly Emily's previous psychiatrist, Dr. Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), is unlikely to be responsible, given that Emily stopped seeing her some time ago. The court rules that Emily was not guilty by reason of insanity, and she is shipped off to a mental hospital.
- While nobody comes out and says that Emily's actions were Dr. Banks' fault, the patients aren't exactly lining up to see a doctor whose picture is constantly in the news. As an increasingly distracted Banks obsesses over seemingly minor details, his wife (Vinessa Shaw) begins to worry. Banks takes a trip to the mental hospital, boasting about the powers of sodium pentothal as he interrogates Emily. Rumors of Banks' inappropriate relationship with an earlier patient begin to swirl just as suggestive photos of Emily are mailed to his wife. Suddenly Banks' investigation starts to look more and more like Emily's intentional car crash. You either have to be suicidal or completely sure of yourself before ramming right into the wall.
- Nobody would mistake Side Effects for a great movie, but it is a strong argument for Steven Soderbergh to continue postponing his hypothetical retirement. As in his recent films The Informant!, Haywire, and Contagion, Soderbergh's immense talents help to elevate potentially schlocky material into something that feels like sophistication, whether or not it actually is. Add in excellent performances by Law and Mara, the latter of whom has quickly become one of the most captivating acting talents of her generation, and you get a thoroughly entertaining thriller that surprises at every turn. If Dr. Banks is correct in saying that "past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour," I expect Soderbergh to continue making great movies for at least another 30 years.
