Steven Soderbergh is probably not a household name for the casual movie goer. However, if you start listing his movies, you will probably find something in there that you like: Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13, Traffic, The Informant! (personal favorite), Contagion, and Magic Mike. Side Effects is supposedly his last film, and while not hitting his highest of highs, it is a very engaging, twisty thriller that Soderbergh can be proud to ride off into the TV sunset with.
Emily (Rooney Mara) is in a very fragile state. After her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) gets sent to prison for insider trading she is forced to create a new life for herself. When he returns, her emotions overwhelm her and she drives her car into a wall. As such, she is afforded a drug-friendly psychologist Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), who helps her overcome her depression with a various assortment of pills. When complications arise, Jonathan seeks the help of Emily’s previous psychologist Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who has a complicated past with Emily.
Soderbergh is usually very meticulous with some specific part of his movies. His best ones involve examining a world, like male stripping (Magic Mike) or the drug trade (Traffic). In Side Effects, Soderbergh focuses his efforts on the story itself and the doctor/patient rules. This level of detail elevates Side Effects above a generic thriller, in that the characters tend to make smart logical decisions across the board when presented with conflicts/options, and the way characters stay ahead of one another is through smart action and reaction. Ironically, this attention to detail to the plot keeps Side Effects from transcendent status since the plot takes precedent over the most intriguing part of the story: the relationship of drugs in a doctor/patient relationship. Every chance there is something to say about the role drugs play, something happens in the story. As a result doctor/drug/patient relationships are relegated to the background and underutilized.
What is so pleasant about Side Effects is the high-concept, adult story that doesn’t involve obvious plot contrivances. There is very little violence to be found, and obvious choices like romantic relationships between Jonathan and Emily are nowhere to be found. Tension in Side Effects is generated though dialogue instead of car chases, and instead of lives threatened lifestyles and reputation (which cut much deeper) can be changed on a dime.
Side Effects succeeds because of the two leads. Jude Law is at home playing the innocent man “wrongly accused.” A veteran of Soderbergh’s films, law knows how to give complexity to a character in a way that is unconventional by today’s movie standards, but is very organic to the story. Having just seen North By Northwest, Law channels Cary Grant through his persona and charisma. Soderbergh newbie Rooney Mara is the real star here. Emily has very little dialogue, but is onscreen much of the time staring into space. It is rare to see so many emotions in one person expressed without words; in one scene after another, Mara adds ambiguity upon ambiguity to Emily so that she seems almost amorphous as the story progresses. Catherine Zeta Jones and Soderbergh’s recent muse Channing Tatum are fine, although Jones’s role might be better played by a character actor to not raise red flags instantly to her character.
With its tight script and complex characters, Side Effects is a paradigm for Steven Soderberg as well as the movie’s title. With his last film Soderbergh hopefully leaves the movie industry some side effects of his own. Other directors can take heed of his ability to build a world, plan a caper, or use Channing Tatum as something more than man meat. If Soderbergh ever chooses to return to the filmmaking world, he will be welcomed back with open arms, in large part to films like Side Effects.