Side Effects

Side Effects (2013) is about a murder committed as a side effect of an antidepressant, and then it goes somewhere else entirely. Emily's husband has served four years for insider trading. He comes out and she collapses. A psychiatrist prescribes a new drug. One of its side effects is sleepwalking. One night she stabs her husband in her sleep. The case becomes a question of liability: is the woman responsible, the doctor who prescribed it, or the company that made it. The doctor's career collapses and he starts investigating on his own. The first half is built like a criticism of the pharmaceutical industry: representatives, trials, consultancy fees paid to doctors. Then the film changes genre and becomes a thriller. That shift was argued over; some viewers feel it turns a real problem into a puzzle. Soderbergh announced this as his last film for cinemas and said he was retiring. He came back later. He photographed it himself again; the light is deliberately cold and yellowish. Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum star. Thomas Newman wrote the score. It runs 106 minutes. Good for: thrillers, twist narrative, and Soderbergh. Less good for: its position on mental health and medication is contested and the ending closes too neatly.