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Side Effects

Starring: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay by: Scott Z. Burns

     Finally, an actually really good movie that's been released in 2013!!!  It's about time!
     Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) is a psychiatrist.  One of his patients, Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara), is a candidate for a new antidepressant drug.  But this drug is only in its testing phase and Banks is one of the doctors who's conducting the study for the drug company.  Both of their worlds will change completely when Taylor becomes the center of attention due to some unexpected side effects of the drug.  It's both a doctor's and a patient's worst nightmare come to life.
     There's something different about Steven Soderbergh's style of directing that's drastically different than many other directors' styles of directing.  While most directors focus on one main character whom the story follows from start to finish, Soderbergh focuses more on the development of the situation, and as a result, no single main character exists.  Instead, the film follows the stories of three or four main characters.  There is also no true hero, nor a true villain.  It's up to us, the audience to decide who the good guys and the bad guys are in the story.
     This is definitely not a film that you'll fall asleep through.  It's not violent.  It's not scary.  But it's suspenseful as hell.  There's a lot of details to be paid attention to and a lot of character development that when revealed, may not seem so important, but always plays an important role later on.
      Rooney Mara and Jude Law are amazing in their respective roles in this film, and are clearly the stars of the show.
      Side Effects seems like it's one of those films that's meant to scare us just a little bit about the reality that we live in.  Can we really trust the drug companies on their advertisements about the side effects of their products?  We tend to joke around with some of the commercials on TV where they say things like "side effects may include nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, swelling of random parts of the body.  Sometimes, side effects such as death have been reported."  Now I don't know about you, but those kinds of things scare me a little bit, and Soderbergh has depicted this fear quite well.
      This is the kind of film that will have you talking long after it's over.  It's going to have you sitting quite close to the edge of your seat for much of the film.  Blink, and you might miss something.  This is a film I definitely recommend seeing while it's in theaters.
I prescribe Side Effects with a B+.
   
   

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