Side Effects

From Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) comes this suspenseful and provocative tale of intrigue starring Channing Tatum, Academy Award nominees Rooney Mara and Jude Law, and Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta-Jones. After her husband (Tatum) is released from prison, Emily (Mara) begins suffering from terrifying anxiety and turns to psychiatrist Dr. Banks (Law) for help. But when Banks prescribes an experimental drug for her, the side effects have chilling and deadly consequences. Full of unexpected twists, Side Effects is the sexy psychological thriller that critics are calling “wildly unpredictable!” (Marlow Stern, Newsweek)

Bonus Content:

• Behind the Scenes of Side Effects
• Ablixa Commercial
• Intenin Commercial

Few filmmakers have spent more time in the zone than Steven Soderbergh. Since making his debut with 1989's Sex, Lies, and Videotape, the director has shown a distinct aversion to being pinned down, cruising between various genres--caper movies, stark dramas, broad comedies, whatever the heck Schizopolis was--and styles with a fairly absurd rate of success. Side Effects, Soderbergh's last theatrical feature before his announced retirement, finds him in smooth jazz mode, setting up the Hitchcockian premise with chilly wit and a deceptively throttled-back ease… which makes the moments when things go haywire all the more satisfying. The script by frequent Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) follows a well-to-do housewife (Rooney Mara) suffering from panic attacks after her husband (Channing Tatum) gets busted for insider trading. When a particularly severe incident leaves her teetering, her doctor (Jude Law) recommends her for an experimental drug trial. Things do not go as the label indicates. Like many thrillers, this is probably best experienced cold, with the various twists and turns of the plot designed to especially wallop the unprepared. Even after you've figured out whodunnit, however, the film's construction still offers rewards on repeat viewing, thanks to some amusing, perceptive takes on today's medicated culture (the characters trade prescription histories like business cards), and the tremendous central performances by Law and Mara. Ultimately, though, the success of Side Effects belongs to its director, who here presents an advance class for aspiring filmmakers in how to elevate your material. Working as his own (pseudonymous) editor and cinematographer, Soderbergh appears to be having an absolute ball, setting up the misdirections and left-field shocks with humor, flair, and the atomic clock timing that can only come from long practice. If he truly is calling it quits, he's picked a swell one to go out on. --Andrew Wright