Side Effects Information

Side Effects is a 2013 psychological thriller-neo-noir film directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay written by Scott Z. Burns. The film stars Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum. The film concerns the ramifications of an event following a young woman being prescribed antidepressant drugs.

Side Effects was released in the United States on February 8, 2013.

Plot

Emily Taylor's (Rooney Mara) husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released after serving a four-year prison sentence for insider trading. Shortly afterward, Emily drives her car into a concrete wall in an apparent suicide attempt. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), her assigned psychiatrist, fears for her safety but agrees to her release from the hospital as long as she frequently attends sessions with him.

Emily tries a series of SSRI anti-depressant medications, but none of them work. Jonathan contacts Emily's previous psychiatrist, Victoria (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who suggests that Jonathan put Emily on a new drug called Ablixa. Jonathan is reluctant to put Emily on the experimental drug until she attempts suicide a second time by trying to jump onto a subway track. The medication works, enabling Emily to function normally besides occasional sleepwalking episodes, a side effect of the drug. One night, she stabs Martin to death while sleepwalking.

Emily is brought to trial, and Jonathan fights for her acquittal. He is criticized publicly for fumbling Emily's case, and his colleagues assume he has been negligent due to his heavy work-load. Emily eventually agrees to plead insanity; she is declared not guilty on the condition that she stay in a mental institution until cleared by a psychiatrist.

Due to the case's bad publicity, Jonathan's career is left in ruins. However, he sets out to clear his name and uncovers evidence that not only did Emily fake her suicide attempts, but was involved in a criminal conspiracy with Victoria. Jonathan interviews Emily after administering what he claims is a truth serum. Emily behaves as if she's groggy from the drug, which unbeknownst to her is actually a placebo. This confirms Jonathan's suspicions.

When Jonathan confronts Victoria with his findings, she mails photographs to Jonathan's wife implying he had an affair with Emily; Jonathan's wife and stepson leave him. Jonathan manages to turn Emily and Victoria against each other by using legal means to prevent contact between them and making each believe that her partner had sold her out to Jonathan for a better deal.

Emily reveals the workings of the plot to Jonathan: she enjoyed the rich life and hated Martin for causing her to lose it. She specifically went to Victoria for counseling as she, too, had been abandoned by her husband, and the two began a romantic relationship. They taught each other about the workings of the financial world and faking psychiatric disorders. They then went to elaborate means to fake the side effects of Ablixa in order to manipulate the stock prices of the drug's manufacturer and its competitor, allowing the duo to become rich in the process.

Jonathan agrees to release Emily from the psychiatric ward under his care. Wearing a wire, she immediately re-unites with Victoria, who admits details of the plot to Emily. Victoria is arrested for conspiracy to commit murder, but Emily, due to double jeopardy, can no longer be held criminally responsible for her part in Martin's murder.

As retaliation for Emily's part in the plot, Jonathan, who still technically oversees her case, prescribes her a series of unnecessary drugs with serious side effects, threatening to send her back to the ward if she refuses. Furious, Emily rants about all that she has done to avoid being sent to prison for Martin's death. Unbeknownst to her, Martin's mother, her lawyer, and a police officer are all outside the room and hear the confession. The police take Emily into custody and send her back to the mental ward.

In the final scene, Jonathan has regained his normal life with his wife and stepson. Emily sits in the ward, staring blankly out the window. A psychiatric nurse asks Emily how she's feeling, and she responds by saying apathetically, "Better. Much Better."

Cast

• Jude Law as Dr. Jonathan Banks
• Rooney Mara as Emily Taylor
• Catherine Zeta-Jones as Dr. Victoria Siebert
• Channing Tatum as Martin Taylor
• Vinessa Shaw as Dierdre Banks
• Ann Dowd as Martin's mother
• Polly Draper as Emily's boss
• David Costabile as Carl Millbank
• Mamie Gummer as Kayla Millbank

Originally, Blake Lively was first cast for the lead role. However, it was later reported Rooney Mara would replace her. Catherine Zeta-Jones also landed the role of Dr. Victoria Siebert. This is the third collaboration between Soderbergh and the actress, following Traffic (2000) and Ocean's Twelve (2004).

Production

Side Effects, previously titled The Bitter Pill, is directed by Steven Soderbergh, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Gregory Jacobs, and Scott Z. Burns who also worked on the screenplay. In January 2012, the film was reported to be produced by Annapurna Pictures. A few weeks later, Annapurna Pictures pulled out from the project resulting in Endgame Entertainment financing the project.

Filming started on April 5, 2012 in New York City. The first pictures of the set surfaced on April 10, 2012.

Music

The film's original score was provided by Soderbergh's regular collaborator, Thomas Newman. The score was released by Varese Sarabande on 5 March 2013. The tracklist is as follows:

Track List:

1. Acute Parasomnia (:41)
2. Very Sick Girl (Main Title) (2:25)
3. Houston Free Meds (2:22)
4. Relativity (1:22)
5. Past Behaviour (1:28)
6. Another Acquittal (3:27)
7. Knife (1:20)
8. Hopelessness (1:22)
9. Allison Finn (2:27)
10. Dark & Stormy (1:10)
11. Poisonous Fog (2:29)
12. Salt Water (2:00)
13. Conduct Review (2:09)
14. Double Jeopardy (:46)
15. Malingering (5:42)
16. St. Luke's (1:23)
17. Take Back Tomorrow (End Title) (2:21)
18. The Forgotten People (Performed by Thievery Corporation) (3:12)

Release

In January 2012, it was reported that The Bitter Pill would be released by Open Road Films. The film is expected to be released in early 2013. In November 2012, the first trailer was released, which stated it had now gone back to the original title of Side Effects and that it would be released on March 8, 2013. The film was screened in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. "Side Effects" opened nationwide on February 8, 2013. It was number 3 in the box office that weekend, earning $10 million.

Reception

Critical reception

Prior to the film's release, Side Effects has received mostly positive reviews from critics. As of February 7, 2013, the film currently holds an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the film given an average score of 3.8/5.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars. Kirk Honeycutt of Honey Cutts Hollywood called the film a "post-modern Hitchcock-thriller" and praised the story matter, which he dubbed "incredible". Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review, complimenting the director and screenwriter and noting its similarity to Spellbound, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, Marnie "? and such Hitchcock-tribute films as Obsession, Dressed to Kill, Raising Cain and Passion, stating "More efficient than inspired, Soderbergh rarely succeeds on style alone, but when giving a sharp script, like the one for Side Effects, he can make an excellent film. If this is his swan song, it's got a haunting melody." In the UK, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded the film a maximum five stars, calling it "a gripping psychological thriller about big pharma and mental health that cruelly leaves you craving one last fix." He praised the lead performance from Rooney Mara as "compelling" who "lays down the law with her presence. She demonstrates a potent Hitchcockian combination: an ability to be scared and scary at the same time, and Soderbergh's film manages to introduce its effects in some insidious, almost intravenous way." Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph awarded Side Effects a maximum five stars and also acknowledged its debt to earlier psychological thrillers. He wrote: "There's a lot of Alfred Hitchcock in what follows, but even more Henri-Georges Clouzot, with whose classic spine-tingler Les Diaboliques (1954) Soderbergh's film shares a poisonous tang." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the film's performances, the script and direction, writing "Soderbergh delivers ticking-bomb suspense laced with psychological acuity about a world where mood-altering meds are as disturbingly prevalent as social media".

Cole Smithey gave Side Effects an A rating (5 stars out of 5), calling it "the first real movie of 2013." Smithey called the film "milestone" thriller and said that multiple viewings of the film may be necessary. Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave the film a 9.5/10, praising the performances of Jude Law and Rooney Mara as well as the writing of the film, stating that the film explores "some interesting ideas." Douglas compared the film to classic thrillers, however stated that the film began feeling far-fetched as the story progressed.