Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Side Effects (2013) (revised)

Steven Soderbergh has always been and up and down director. He either makes great films or films that make you wonder what in the hell he was thinking. After two head scratchers (HAYWIRE and MAGIC MIKE) he returns to form with the thriller SIDE EFFECTS.

The plot of the film has Mara Rooney welcoming home her husband, played by Channing Tatum after four years away in prison for insider trading. Kicking up a huge load of unsettled issues, which in this case means mood swings and attempting suicide. Put on a new drug by psychiatrist Jude Law things kind of go along okay. However things go from bad to worse as the hubby is found dead and it looks like Rooney did it while on the new drug.

The less said the better since where the film goes after that makes the majority of the film. I will say that this is really Jude Laws film.

I will also say that this is a low key thriller where the tension comes from the characters interactions and not action or thriller like set pieces- people don't get stalked. This doesn't mean there isn't tension, there, a great deal of it, since without the trappings of s typical suspense film we no longer are in  cliche territory with every twist a genuine surprise.

While on some levels the film is a too talky (I would have loved a chase but where would it go?) the film still really knocked my socks off. It went off in unexpected directions and refused to anything except follow it's own path  which revealed wonderful new twists with each scene.

Definitely recommended for anyone wanting an very good and unconventional thriller.

1 comment:

  1. Good review Steve. It's the type of thriller where you have no clue what's going to happen next to anybody involved, and you don't want to know because of how exciting it is.

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