Prepare to suspend disbelief, then suspend it again, with Side Effects, the new psychological thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns. Emily Taylor played by Rooney Mara is a sympathetic victim of circumstance. She’s prescribed one drug for her anxiety and depression but when that pill fails to work, she’s prescribed another and then another. Each drug comes with various side effects that are difficult for her to tolerate… until she is introduced to the “miracle” drug Ablixa. The drug seems to work and she latches onto it.
Alas, there is one unfortunate side effect of Ablixa which leads to the early demise of Emily’s husband, Martin, played by “Sexiest Man Alive,” Channing Tatum. Martin, who had been convicted of insider training, has just gotten out of the slammer. Emily’s behavior, including a suicide attempt, suggests that Martin’s conviction and jail time is the reason behind her depression. Soon after he’s released from prison, he ends up dead. But did she do it? Is she the victim or a cold and calculating murderer who step-by-step planned her husband’s murder and faked all of her symptoms?
Dr. Jonathan Banks, played by Jude Law, believes he is helping Emily by enrolling her into a clinical trial for Ablixa. Of course, the move is self-serving since Banks receives money from the pharmaceutical company that markets the drug. Banks may mean well, but his focus on the money means he doesn’t properly vet the drug before he prescribes it for Emily. He just hands Emily a potentially questionable drug with minimal due diligence. Banks gets more than he signed on for, however, when his life is systematically destroyed.
To save himself and his reputation, Jude Law’s Dr. Banks morphs into a super sleuth (Law has played Dr. Watson to Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes) attempting to untangle an incredibly intricate murder plot. Along the way, the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones is underused as Emily’s former therapist who consults with Banks.
Although somewhat predictable, the film does entertain and scrapes together some watchable moments. Rooney Mara and Jude Law effectively play these flawed and troubled characters and pull you into this vortex of confusion. But in the end, Side Effects gives the audience the side effect of disbelief – are there any meds to treat that?
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