The main creator of "Side Effects" is similar to Soderberg’s other retired works. It has a star-studded lineup. The celebrities value this last opportunity for collaboration. The film brings together Rooney Mara, Jude Law, and Catherine Zeta Jones. With Soderberg's recent queen hero, Channing Tatum, all of them are acting well and likable, even if the content is melancholy and heavy. The movie tells the story of Rooney Mara who suffered from mental illness due to taking drugs and killed her husband, Channing Tatum, who had just been released from prison. Mara’s attending doctor, Jude Law, gradually discovered the abnormality during the treatment and finally understood everything. In fact, it was the conspiracy of Mara and her fellow psychologist Zeta Jones. This is a story with the color of a classic Hollywood thriller and suspense movie. It exudes the atmosphere of Hitchcock and Billy Wilder. Most of the scenes are indoor plays. The narrative is driven by dialogue, and the exaggerated lighting is used to insinuate Character psychology, the actor's performance possesses the elegance and calmness of a stage performance. Soderbergh used dim yellow and off-white as the main colors of the "Side Effects" image, coupled with the cold and dark concrete, so that the anxiety and depression of the whole movie was reflected in every frame of the picture. Rooney Mara is the absolute protagonist of the film. Jones and Tatum have fewer roles, so there is not much room to play. As for Jude Law, it is like he accidentally grabbed the scene in Soderbergh’s Infectious Diseases. This time his brilliance was almost taken away by Mara. Rooney Mara continued to shock the four with her superb acting skills. If "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo" is a strong bottle of spirits for her, then this time "Side Effects" is a strong glass for her. Bitter Coffee, from the initial weakness and confusion, to the mania and fear in the middle, to the evil and cunning of the final strategy, Rooney Mara has created a sad but abominable female protagonist. This shaping is very three-dimensional.
I don't know how Soderberg will leave the career of directors in the future, but it is certain that as a film director, he is successful. From the blockbuster launch of the "Sex Lie Video" that unveiled the American independent film movement in the 1990s, few people can manage art and business with ease like him. Now that his retirement is imminent, we can only experience the wisdom of light and shadow from his chronology in the future. I am stuck in it and cannot extricate ourselves. This may be a side effect of taking a lot of his movies.
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