Thursday, February 7, 2013

Side Effects Review - 3½ Stars

“Side Effects” gives confirmation of Rooney Mara’s talent.  The young star of “The Social network” and the english language version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has great talent and knows how to hold an audience’s attention.    Director Steven Soderbergh directs this pharmaceutical thriller with the help of some wicked medical pseudo advertising.  The plot:  Mara goes into a severe depression when her hunk of a husband played by Channing Tatum returns from four years in jail for insider trading.  She sees Psychiatrist Jude Law who prescribes several medications with varied success.  Mara asks for a new drug and something in it pushes her over the edge.  Or does it?  Catherine Zeta Jones adds to the mystery as Mara’s former physician.  The final few minutes had the audience I watched with gasping.  I loved “Side Effects” for its lampoon of medical advertising and for its surprising and shocking twists.  Give me a grown up old school thriller any time.  Does it deliver what it promises?  Smart medical thriller.  Is it entertaining?  It keeps you guessing.  Is it worth the price of admission?  Just what the doctor ordered.