Side Effects is the latest (and possibly last) movie from director Steven Soderbergh. What starts out as a seemingly innocent enough medical drama, where The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo seeks help dealing with her depression, quickly turns into a thrilling mystery to uncover the truth behind the murder of Magic Mike, after the side effects of her latest prescription causes her to do things she's unaware of in her sleep. And meanwhile, Jude Law, being the psychiatrist who was working with The Girl, has to deal with the legal backlash for his medical treatment. But, nah-uh, he ain't just gonna go out like no bitch. You don't just mess up Jude Law's day like that and get away with it. Jude Law's gonna get to the bottom of this!
The direction is absolutely slick, and the transition into different genres as the movie moves along feels smooth and natural. There's seriously some nice twists that I truly didn't see coming. In fact, the only thing I didn't really like about the movie was a hand-holding flashback near the end that felt out of place, and really only existed to cater to anyone in the audience who were either too dumb to follow along or just weren't paying any attention at all.
But that little tidbit aside, I really enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Save for Catherine Zeta-Jones, who turns in yet another obnoxiously over-acted performance to add to her ever growing resume of obnoxiously over-acted performances, the acting here was exceptional all around. The writing is smart, and the film is super engaging from start to finish, and will be sure to surprise you in more ways than one. Everything just clicks into place so nicely. So if this is Soderbergh's last movie, then at least he went out on a fairly high note, and he left us all with one last, very important message to keep in mind: Do not fuck with Jude Law.
I enjoyed your review! Check mine out at averageisbetter.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks, and will do. :)
ReplyDeleteFunny stuff. :D LOL The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is quite a dangerous chick, even on her meds. But she should know better than to mess with Jude Law! :D
ReplyDeleteFor real! Sure, she may know a thing or two about playing detective, but Jude Law learned from the very best. And you can't just best the best like that. ;)
ReplyDeleteHmmm well it sounds like this is better than Contagion so maybe I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, it's a lot better than Contagion.
ReplyDeleteNice review Chris. Jude Law is the man in this movie and it's probably one of his best roles in the longest-time. Hopefully this isn't the swan song of Soderbergh because as good as it is, it definitely is not his greatest film by any means necessary.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dan. :) I can definitely agree with this being one of Jude Law's better roles in a while. I usually tend to forget about him, but his performance just really struck me in this movie. I'll also agree that I hope this doesn't turn out to be Soderbergh's last. I'd like to think that he still has a few really good ones left in him.
ReplyDelete