When the Cheshire emerges...

Wow, I've had dramas trying to put this up, but I got there.

Side Effects (MA 15+)

IF anyone knows about telling a story where someone gets their just desserts, Steven Soderbergh would be that person.

More than a decade ago he did that with the true story of Erin Brockovich. But while she was quite the working class character, Soderbergh throughout his work has realised the need to fight comes in all walks of life. In a difficult age where people strive to be their best, it can be harder for some than others.

It's a sad time for Emily (Rooney Mara) when it should be the happiest. Her husband Martin (Channing Tatum, in a serious turn) has just been released from prison after four years and he finds their integration into society as a couple again easier than she does.

Their life before his arrest was one of spoils; Emily's situation gave her everything to lose. As a previous depression sufferer, in rebuilding their life Emily attempts suicide and is referred to psychiatrist Dr John Banks (Jude Law).

Their relationship is one of trust, and leads to the prescription of strong medication just released on the market with Emily's consent and the advice of her previous psychiatrist Dr Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Emily experiences some of the major side effects but believes the drug is working.

We rely on medicine to believe everything is going to get better, but Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z Burns focus on the repercussions. And Dr Banks finds himself at the centre of a scandal no one saw coming.

Scott Z Burns has worked with Soderbergh twice in a writer-director relationship, while Tatum and Soderbergh have teamed up on three films in as many years after 2011's Haywire and last year's Magic Mike.

Soderbergh's familiarity with much of his cast and crew serves him well in this dark turn, but new face Mara in the mix adds a vulnerability to the story. Her looks of confusion often centre the film as she struggles in a drug-filled haze.

There is general uncertainty among the characters as truths come to reveal themselves in both the story and the personalities within them; questioning how far people are willing to go to protect themselves and avoid the repercussions of what may be playing out.
What most know as inevitable though is that someone has to be punished. There always has to be someone to blame, for finality - but when circumstances are cloudy it becomes harder to clarify.

A person getting what they deserve comes from the fight for it, or for making a bad judgement. Soderbergh displays that well in a thriller where there are questions to be asked and explored, but no definitive answers.

Rating: 4/5