Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara), 28, had been suffering from depression since her husband Martin Taylor (Channing Tatum) was sent into prison 5 years ago. Eventually reunited with Martin, Emily's condition worsened. She drove a car into the wall, tried to jumped into the underground track, and looked very sad almost every day. As her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) prescribed Emily an experimental new medication, Ablixa, after discussing with her previous doctor Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Ablixa made Emily feel better, yet its side effects made her sleepwalk day and night. In a sleepwalking state, Emily killed her husband and announced she had no memory about the tragedy. Criticized by the public, Dr.Banks helped Emily to prove her mental illness and tried to convince the justice that she was killing her husband under unconsciousness thus her behavior did not constitute a crime. But for Dr. Banks, a full responsibility for the death of a patient's husband was so unfair . A huge pressure urged him to investigate this case further to clear his name. He was true. A dreadful secret hid behind it…And the dark, dark fact made me stop breathing.
Traveling through the story, I cannot but admire Soderbergh's fascinating control of the whole movie. It is just like every time you think you know what is happening - but actually you don't. There are a great number of twists and turns, thus you have to follow Dr. Banks closely to not lose subtle but crucial clues. At the beginning, I thought Dr. Banks was going to extremes, as he dealt with Emily so brutally. He forced her to take a great many drugs, regardless of her resistance; and he did some so-called psychological tests on her, which led her to mental breakdown. However, as the story continued, I started to find that Emily was not as weak as she looked like. At the end, these two roles exchanged their positions, Dr. Banks was the only victim in the “accident”. With clean and restrained frames, Soderbergh's narrative ability surprised me.Reversals like this made me excited, with an unexpected sigh at the same time.
I suppose we should not ignore Rooney Mara's brilliant acting, either. It is said that the female leading role was originally decided to choose from Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams and Blake Lively. I should say, Soderbergh made his last decision perfectly: Rooney Mara. Her pale skin, sensitive eyes and sad expressions all made her another Emily Taylor. Impressed by her Gothic style in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in 2011 (I haven't watched it, but no one would forget her appearance on the movie poster) , I believe she did a lot to play Emily role. And she achieved a success as she turned herself from a female ruffian into a delicate and touching but actually awful woman. The deep disappointment in her eyes left in my mind for a long time. And both Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones did a great job,but as their acting have already been accepted by film viewers all around the world, their remarkable performances were covered by Rooney, the younger potential super movie star.
To be honest, I have never expected the ending. It was suspended, and I don't know how to define it. It seemed a happy ending as Dr. Banks finally found the truth, regained his normal life, and took a successful revenge . However, his discovery made me upset that Emily was actually a mentally normal woman who associated with her lesbian lover Victoria to kill her innocent husband, and pretended to be a psychopath to escape from legal penalty. And because it was a complete fraud, Emily has never eaten those pills and of course, there existed no side effects at all. But she would live her rest life in the hospital and be controlled as a mental patient by Dr. Banks for revenging. Ironic!
Some movies give viewers pretty a lot of profound thoughts. Unfortunately, Side Effects did not. It was just a pure movie supported by great structure, attractive suspense and acting brilliant. Just like Hitchcock's works, we enjoy it, breathe with it, without lasting thoughts. That is enough.
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