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| Left to right: Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum |
Director Steven Soderbergh has made a career out of making films on his watch. His one-two punch last year of Haywire and Magic Mike saw him continuing to take deviant subject matter and catapulting it into the zeitgeist. With the news that he is retiring this year, he has claimed that his recent film Side Effects is his last great idea. In a career full of strong achievements, this sounds like more than a marketing gimmick. How does this play as his proposed farewell to the fans?
The story follows Emily (Rooney Mara) as she suffers from depression. Upon a prescription from Dr. Banks (Jude Law), things go awry and lead to court cases and surveillance watch at mental institutions. With Banks frantically trying to solve everything, the story dives deeper into a complicated, bizarre story about abusing prescriptions and the judicial system. The film continually analyzes how both the doctor and the patient can be perceived as guilty and delves into the moral quandary that can come with facing up to the truth.
Soderbergh’s narrative manages to evoke a sense of Alfred Hitchcock. With a script by Soderbergh’s The Informant partner in crime Scott Z. Burns, the story is a procedural that explores the morality behind both sides of over the counter medication. A lot of the tension is lifted straight from the characters’ ethics and not everyone has a happy ending. There are even twists spread throughout that recall Psycho, though here achieved through the more subverted Soderbergh method. Along with a Thomas Newman score that plays like a relaxed descent into madness, the story is so layered that some of the themes may go unnoticed upon first viewing. Even the ending’s simplicity gets creepier if you consider that it may not be showing everything.
The film plays out as an infectious Rubik’s cube in which Rooney Mara is the puzzle and Jude Law is the solver. With both of their descents into different forms of madness, the performances reflect dedicated actors who can gradually change while convincing you that nothing happened. Mara is great at portraying internal turmoil so well that a simple glance is all that’s needed to understand her. Law’s paranoia results in a passionate performance that may rank as one of his best. Together, they create the sort of unease that surrounds unpredictable disaster, which drives the film into an engaging bait and switch in the third act.
Soderbergh is a master filmmaker, and Side Effects is an excellent example of why he will be missed. From the way that the film bookends with similar shots; it almost symbolizes the director coming full circle. It may not win him any Oscars, but it embodies him leaving on an ambitious note. Even Soderbergh’s shot selection help to depict uneasiness through the use of Dutch angles and intentional blurring, which achieves the effect of the film feeling even more off balance. Still, Soderbergh’s control over every aspect has created a strong, entertaining story that demands your attention. The film serves as commentary on our culture without taking sides or being preachy about it. It also works because the mystery at the core is convoluted enough to suggest a more complicated structure.
Side Effects manages to succeed on levels beyond the suspenseful twists. With fantastic performances from Jude Law and Rooney Mara, the story is love letter to analyzing sanity through mind manipulation. In many ways, this can be seen as commentary on cinema’s influence on our culture. However, it also serves as a terrifying mystery with a high level of intricacy that shows a master going out on top. It may not be the most fulfilling Soderbergh film to exit on, but he succeeds in making a film that will probably reward multiple viewings and start up conversations. By tackling multiple genres, it manages to be a modern day callback to Hitchcock without simply being a shot for shot homage. It tackles many heavy themes and will surprise you in unexpected ways. In a sense, this is what Soderbergh has done when at his best. Side Effects may be his swan song, but it also feels like a strong final thesis on a director that made a career out of never settling for the expected.
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