I saw Side Effects because regardless of how I feel about one of his specific movies or his unfortunate crush on Channing Tatum, I generally think that he is a good director and am always willing to watch his films….at home. Side Effects can be divided into two parts. The first part of Side Effects shows how a woman, played by Rooney Mara, plunges back into mental illness and responds to treatment and the external stress of readjusting to life with her husband, played by Channing Tatum, after a forced separation. The second part of Side Effects follows her doctor, played by Jude Law, as he treats and deals with the fallout of his treatment of the woman. Side Effects uses one of my least favorite narrative devices-the “how we got here” trope where the story opens at a scene that will occur later in the movie, then the subsequent scenes show the events that led up to that sensational moment. This event is the demarcation of when the audience shifts sympathies.
The first half of Side Effects felt more like social commentary on how natural human reactions to major events and corruption are not treated by responding to the elephants in the room, but women are expected to bear the brunt of the burden instead. I thought that Soderbergh was targeting the economic crisis of 2008. I thought that the depictions of mental illness were initially well done then over the top to bordering on offensive, but I reserved judgment because I was only halfway through the movie.
The second half of Side Effects felt more like social commentary on the medical industry: closer to Wall Street in attitude with the smug exchanges and overly reliant on big business (the pharmaceutical industry) in treatment than human contact. Law’s character seemed like a happy medium. He clearly cares about his patients, but is still questionable as he casually gives his wife medication so she can do well at a job interview.
As Side Effects progresses, the audience becomes more invested in Law as a human being, not as a symbol, and Side Effects unabashedly becomes a Hitchcockian thriller or a feature length episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. When this shift occurred, I began to really enjoy Side Effects. While Mara’s performance is perfect, the narrative purposely holds back from completely representing her point of view.
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Side Effects’ entire plot hinges on the psycho hot lesbian trope and the plausibility that mentally ill people are all potential murderers. Side Effects may be entertaining and has a veneer of a sophisticated critique of our socioeconomic system and the marriage of pharmaceutical industry with the medical profession, but it actually reinforces regressive societal stereotypes in a shiny postmodern package. It isn’t an accident that people are afraid of transgender people in bathrooms–Hitchcock (Psycho) and Brian DePalma (Dressed to Kill, Raising Cain) may not have intended that result, but you can’t watch decades of movies of murderous men dressed as women and not walk away without some psychological residue regardless of actual facts. Hot conniving lesbians are out to destroy men, y’all, and someone needs to stop them. Someone lock up Sharon Stone before she joins in the fun.
While I enjoyed Side Effects, I did not buy several crucial plot points. I don’t believe in a world where Channing Tatum is a titan of Wall Street with enough brains to make a ton of money for even a few seconds and impart enough knowledge to his wife so that she could become a stock market Bin Laden. You can literally send him to jail for any other reason, and I’ll buy it, but no! I do not buy that the entire system would cosign Law basically torturing her for life by medicating her and keeping her confined in an insane asylum when they knew that Mara’s character was not mentally ill. Some other doctor or nurse would notice something fishy. I did not buy that the wife would not remember that Mara came to Law and that showed not become suspicious of the photos. Considering how quickly Law’s wife dumps him when life starts to come at him quickly, I don’t believe that he would reconcile with her knowing that she does not trust him and at worse, saw him as a meal ticket until she got employed again.
If you’re a Soderbergh fan, check out Side Effects, but don’t rush to do so.