Sunday 31 March 2013

Side Effects

Mini Review

I have recently started making the most of Orange/EE Wednesdays with a friend from work. As I have a Cineworld card it means that with the Orange/EE code, she gets a free ticket. Bargain! We saw the trailer for Side Effects a couple of weeks earlier and as my friend is a fan of Channing Tatum it seemed to be a bit of a no-brainer that we would see Side Effects.

The film tells the story of Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara), a young woman who has suffered from depression since her husband Martin (Channing Tatum), was imprisoned for insider trading. Upon his release she assumes that they will be able to put the last 4 years behind them, but instead she finds herself slipping deeper into depression's grasp. She starts seeing a psychiatrist, Dr Banks (Jude Law), who prescribes her with an amazing new drug. The immediate effects are everything Emily and Martin hope for, but then the side effects of the drugs start to creep in and if they get out of hand, they could destroy the lives of not only Emily and Martin, but Dr Banks too.

I found Side Effects to be quite a different film from the one advertised in the trailer. For one, as my poor friend discovered, Channing Tatum's role is considerably smaller than the trailer indicates. That aside though I found that it was different in a surprising way rather than a disappointing sense. The film was a lot darker and had a lot more twists that I was expecting. From the trailer I guessed this was going to be more of a courtroom drama, looking at the side effects of the drug prescribed, but in reality the film is more of a psychological thriller and had so many double crosses that I had trouble keeping track of them all.

The only problems I had with the film were that it felt overly long, and after the main twist had occurred I'd already figured out what all of the remaining twists were going to be. So it felt more like a waiting game for everything to be neatly wrapped up. I did still enjoy the film overall and if you're a fan of psychological thrillers or any of the actors involved then I'd say you're likely to enjoy this. It's a popcorn movie but an enjoyable one, and at times, brain teasingly so. 7 out of 10.


Viewing Date - 13th March 2013
UK Release Date - 8th March 2013

Cast Overview:
Jude Law ~ Dr Jonathan Banks
Rooney Mara ~ Emily Taylor
Catherine Zeta-Jones ~ Dr Victoria Siebert
Channing Tatum ~ Martin Taylor
Vinessa Shaw ~ Dierdre Banks
Ann Dowd ~ Martin's Mother
Polly Draper ~ Emily's Boss

Director ~ Steven Soderbergh

Writer ~

Scott Z. Burns (Screenplay)

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