Jude Law in ‘Side Effects’; Shakespeare in Jail: Movies

The quietly bloody opening of Steven Soderberghs psychiatric-meds melodrama Side Effects leaves a horror-movie chill.

Then the picture unfolds so upsettingly that the last thing I expected was to be laughing my head off by the end.

The title refers specifically to the malign side effects of prescription antidepressants. A psychiatrist (Jude Law) takes on a suicidal patient (Rooney Mara), whose husband (Channing Tatum) has just finished a four-year sentence for insider trading.

The shrink puts her on a fictional pill called Ablixa. The critique of Big Pharma is implicit throughout: Hes also being paid $50,000 to enlist guinea pigs for yet another new drug. We see one patient jump at the chance -- never mind the risks -- as soon as she finds out its free.

The terrific cast includes Vinessa Shaw as Laws wife, Ann Dowd as Tatums mother and Catherine Zeta-Jones with her hair yanked back in a bun and a bearing hard enough to break teeth.

Thomas Newmans initially delicate score draws you in without directing your feelings at every minute. The demonically clever script, by Scott Z. Burns, dances dangerously close to the edge of oh-come-on -- and in retrospect there are a couple of glitches I cant account for. But my mind never wandered.

Side Effects, from Open Road films, is playing across the U.S. Rating: **** (Seligman)

Identity Thief gives Melissa McCarthy -- the terrifically likable star of TVs Mike & Molly who stole Bridesmaids from its well-toned leading ladies -- her full-fledged feature- film starring role. But the result is dispiriting, to say the least.

Co-starring a droll Jason Bateman, the film features McCarthy as Diana, a tacky, hair-permed Florida grifter who funds her shopping mall sprees with scammed credit-card information.

Her latest victim is Sandy Patterson (Bateman), a corporate- finance drone in Denver who falls afoul of his boss and the law when Diana lifts his identity for some shady doings.

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Jude Law in ‘Side Effects’; Shakespeare in Jail: Movies