Film Review: Side Effects (15) (U.S.A. 2013) (Director: Steven Soderbergh) Saturday 16.03.2013 18:00 The Filmhouse Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh
This review should serve as a reminder to me, not to trust trailers. I used to consciously try to ignore trailers as know they are designed to mislead. I knew that the trailer for this had made me more curious and I should have reminded myself of my previous stance - which I intend to return to. Also its cast leaves a lot to be desired. Jude Law I have limited tolerance of, Catherine Zeta-Jones I have less tolerance of and Channing Tatum I rather see injured than appearing in a film I am watching. Only Rooney Mara escapes my ire and that is only because she has not had enough of a career yet to be scathing about.
Ostensibly the film concerns a young woman/wife (Rooney Mara) who presents as being depressed and a psychiatrist (Jude Law) prescribing a drug that is not yet fully regulated. Sounds fairly straightforward, and would have been a better film had it stuck to being an exploration of the practice of large pharmaceutical companies and how they get drugs into use. Instead it descends into a trashy '1990's' style crime film where those responsible turn out to be those 'pesky lesbians'. Because as we all know, if you are a lesbian you are also automatically a deviant. - Lazy & Ignorant.
Another '90's' convention I thought any respectable film maker had moved away from is having non-english dialogue being spoken without any subtitles - because you the audience don't need to hear all that is being said, only the parts that the makers wish to highlight to you as being important. This is highly patronising. There are odd camera angles used for what appears to be no reason at all - causing me as an audience member not to be sat there thinking 'oh that's an interesting way to look at that', though instead 'what the f***'. There are irresponsible statements made about real medication such as beta-blockers (Bisoprolol Hemifumarate), which to me is very hard to justify. The film also has people making stupid statements such as that made by Rooney Mara's character while supposedly feeling helpless (to paraphrase) 'when I felt helpless before, I found structure to really help'. bla bla bla...
Previously I said it descends into a trashy...I feel it is actually only fair to go further to say the whole film is trashy. It felt so badly written that it was angering. I would say the film is bland, banal, poppy, redundant and without any redeeming quality. I was so angered I was taking notes during the film to ensure I captured my annoyance (usually any distraction during a film would annoy me). I stayed to the end just to see how bad the whole thing gets...and you cannot get much worse than this. The film was so utterly crap that not even Channing's character being killed gave any joy. This is without doubt one of the worst films I have ever seen. Soderbergh has said this is his last film, all I can say in response to this is GOOD. No one needs more unimaginative and insulting films like this.
Rating: 0/10 (If it was possible to give less than zero, I would).
