Side Effects

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 8 Feb 2013
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Staring:  Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Rating? R
SPOILERS? YES, but not much

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.1 of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 83% Audience: 70%
MY RATING: 7 of 10

STORYLINE
A young woman world unravels when a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist has unexpected effects.

MY REVIEW:
This movie jumps genres on a regular basis. Psychological joyride, thriller and mystery. The lead character is Emily Taylor {Rooney Mara} whom we see suffering from depression and driving into a concrete wall in an apparent suicide attempt. Her husband, Martin {Channing Tatum} has just been released from prison after serving four years for insider trading. We then see her visiting her psychiatrist Jonathan Banks {Jude Law}.

This movie is the journey that she, Emily makes to regain her stability. She is prescribed a new drug called Ablixa which has some pretty devastating side effects for her and her family.

I think that the director took a few cues from the wonderful Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. From the beginning, there seems to be a wonderful suspenseful feel that created the "What's gonna happen next?" feeling that is much sought after in this type of film.

The script is a little lacking for me, but solid acting and directing bring it up from that a little. Having said that, it dies feel like this movie is a bit heavy handed on the blame game with the drug industry in the US today.

In the end, I did enjoy Side Effects, but it could have been better.