Movie Review: 'Side Effects' Oozes Classic Tension

Weve all had it. That empty, helpless feeling, where everything seems like its against you. You may need a little help. Sometimes that help comes in the form of prescription drugs. Sometimes those drugs have side effects. Headaches. Nausea. Abdominal pain. Dry mouth. Involuntary murder.

Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) has just gotten her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum), back after four years in prison for insider trading. As much as she loves him and is glad to have him back in her life, she is still unhappy. She is consistently stricken with moments of severe depression, bouts that culminate one morning when she deliberately drives her car into the wall of her apartment buildings garage. While in the emergency room, she receives a consultation from Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law). Emily begins therapy sessions with Banks, but every antidepressant he prescribes makes her ill. On the advice of her previous therapist, Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), he prescribes a new drug called Ablixa.

The drug seems like a miracle to the Taylors, as Emily appears to have returned to her old self. The only side effect is sleepwalking, for which Banks prescribes something else. One day, when he returns home, Martin finds Emily chopping vegetables for dinner in a sleepwalking daze. When he tries to wake her, she stabs him twice in the stomach and once in the back. As Martin lies bleeding to death on the floor, Emily casually walks into the bedroom and crawls into bed. Was it the drug or was she completely aware of what she was doing? These questions begin to ruin Banks, sending his career and life into a downward spiral, one he cant get out of until he proves what really happened.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, "Side Effects" is a tautly wound suspense thriller in the classic mold. Its "Double Indemnity" filtered through Hitchcock. As you watch Banks struggle to keep hold of the fraying strands of his life, youll find your chest tightening and your hands wringing until theyre raw. Soderbergh expertly allows Banks little victories, only to have something take him down a few notches lower than he was prior.

Soderbergh has stated that he is retiring from directing, and that "Side Effects" is to be his final film. If this is completely true, then this magnificent director goes out with a winner. Well miss you Steven.

DVD Recommendation: Many critics other than myself have referred to "Side Effects" as Hitchcockian. While its a fair comparison (Hitch isnt called the Master of Suspense for nothing), these types of keeps-you-guessing films are all following in the footsteps of one film in particular: "Diabolique" (1955). Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who is sometimes called the French Hitchcock, the story concerns a jerk of a schoolmaster, Michel, his wife, Christina, and his mistress, Nicole. Both women teach at the boarding school, and they have strangely bonded over the equal abuse they get from Michel, who only stays with Christina because it is her money that funds the school. Over a long vacation weekend, the women lure Michel to Nicoles hometown, where they drug his drink and drown him in a bathtub. Then they take his body back to the school and dump it in the murky swimming pool, hoping the body will float to the surface and people will think he stumbled in and drowned. When too many days pass for a body to stay under, Nicole accidentally drops her keys into the pool and arranges to have it drained. Of course, once its empty there is no body. Was Michel really dead? Is he mysteriously stalking around the school grounds? The final ten minutes are some of the most tension-filled minutes in cinema history, and its a film that keeps you guessing literally right up to the very last frame, as well as long after you turn off the DVD. Side note: avoid the abysmal 1996 remake like the plague.

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Movie Review: 'Side Effects' Oozes Classic Tension