If Side Effects is in fact Steven Soderbergh's final feature film before the Magic Mike director retires from filmmaking, he's gone out with neither a bang nor a whimper but a seductive whisper.
At first glance he appears to be casting a light on the complex (and lucrative) relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the seemingly increasing number of mental and emotional disorders that can be treated with medication. But Side Effects gradually reveals itself as a sleek and venomous thriller, cleverly plotted and elegantly directed.
Emily (Rooney Mara, her deceptively blank features proving subtly expressive) would seem to have every reason to be happy. Her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is out of prison after serving four years for insider trading and is eager to get the couple's formerly charmed life back on track. But a deep, ongoing depression haunts Emily, resulting in an attempt at self-harm that sees her placed under the care of psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Banks (an intriguingly complex Jude Law). Caring and conscientious, Banks combines therapy with medication, starting Emily on a relatively new pill called Ablixa. And that's when things start going wrong.
It would be poor form to reveal just what occurs when Side Effects takes a turn for the sinister and mysterious, but Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z Burns (Contagion) handle the turn from medical drama to pulpy melodrama with deceptive ease.
In cinemas now.
