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Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ann Dowd ... see more see more... , Vinessa Shaw , Carmen Pelaez , Martin Ireland , Polly Draper , Haraldo Alvarez , Jimmy Martinez , Vladimir Versailles , Jacqueline Antaramian , Michelle Vergara Moore , Katie Lowes , David Costabile , Mamie Gummer , Steven Platt , Víctor Cruz , Elizabeth Rodriguez , Peter Friedman , Andrea Bogart , Laila Robins , Mitchell Michaliszyn , Elizabeth Rich , Roderick Rodriguez , Mark Weekes , John Scott Shepherd , Michael Nathanson , Timothy Klein , Sheila Tapia , Josh Elliott , Sasha Bardey , Ashley A. Morrison , Steve Lacy , Ken Marks , Devin Ratray , Russell G. Jones , Munro M. Bonnell , Susan Gross , Debbie Friedlander , Ilyana Kadushin , Johnny Sanchez , Nicole Ansari , La Chanze , Alice Niedermair-Ludwig , Craig muMs Grant , Davenia McFadden , Raymond DeBendictis , J. Claude Deering , Blake Lively

SIDE EFFECTS is a provocative thriller about Emily and Martin (Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum), a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Ju... read more read more...de Law) - intended to treat anxiety - has unexpected side effects. (c) Official FB

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75% liked it

37,367 ratings

Critics

85% liked it

181 critics

R, 1 hr. 46 min.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Release Date: February 8, 2013

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DVD Release Date: May 21, 2013

Stats: 2,206 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (2,206)

  • CloudStrife84
    May 15, 2013
    CloudStrife84
    Said to be Soderbergh's last ever film, this post-modern Hitchcockian thriller would certainly conclude his oeuvre on a high and impressive note.

    Starting off really slow and almost repellently unremarkable, I first wondered if it was going to be another overrated sleeping pill... read more. Just as I was about to lose my patience, however, it rapidly shifted gear, escalating into a devastating turn of events and a superbly intriguing mystery yarn you feel compelled to see unraveled.

    Besides the top notch acting (with Rooney Mara and Jude Law really playing things to the hilt), figuring out this puzzle box to Thomas Newman's enhancing music score is a stimulant that will really make your day. It's only side effect: an apparent risk of melancholy as this could very well be where the Soderbergh train makes its final stop.

    My prescription: check it out. Because I don't need to be on any medication to say that this is my personal favorite film by him since the suave and classy Ocean's Eleven.

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Movie-Reviews/281824101875153
  • emilkakko
    May 9, 2013
    emilkakko
    This might not be nothin more than a routine thriller from Steven Soderbergh, but it is also a thriller with delicious twists and eerie calculated style. It is interesting to see someone like Soderbergh dive into this kind of genre but i myself hoped that he would go much further... read more into it than he actually did.

    Scott Z. Burns' screenplay does serve a nice play of powers between the leading trio, but too often it focuses on pharmaseutical facts and feels a bit too preachy about the possible corruption behind the big medical corporations that create drugs for people who suffer from mental illness. There are strenghts in Burns' screenplay and it plays quite effectively with viewers expectations, but ultimately it cannot live up to it's expectations.

    There were moments in Side Effects which reminded me of films of Brian De Palma, but Soderbergh's clinical approach did not go well together with those moments and too often when things were supposed the get more suspenseful the end result felt too flat to gain real thrills. There are some typical trademarks of Soderbergh's in here. His cold and hypnotic way to approach the story is something we've seen in many of his films and there is also a highly moody score made by composer Thomas Newman.

    Overall this is a film that will keep you most likely entertained for it's entire running time, and it is never boring, but honestly we have seen these kind of films made so much better earlier that in the end Side Effects is more closer to an average entertainment than something truly unique as a film.
  • TomBowler
    April 18, 2013
    TomBowler
    Steven Soderbergh will never be typecast. In a career spanning 24 years after exploding into the world of film with Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989, Soderbergh has gone through sci-fi with Solaris, biopics with Erin Brockovich and the Che series, heist films with Danny Ocean's e... read morever-increasing band of thieves, action with Haywire, psychological thrillers with Contagion, pitch-black comedy with The Informant, whatever genre you feel like calling Magic Mike, and now a good old-fashioned murder mystery with what is purported to be his last film. Michael Bay may dominate the bad action movie scene, but when you walk into a Steven Soderbergh film, you never know what you're going to walk away with.

    The same is true of Side Effects. When it begins, with our lead character going through an endless transition from anxiety pill to anxiety pill in an attempt to feel better, or at least something, it seems that Soderbergh's last film is going to be an open fire on the pill industry. But as it progresses through a murder and some beautifully strung paranoia, we realise it's done a somersault in a different direction and becomes a mystery to rival Agatha Christie's most gleefully loopy narratives for twists, turns and all-exposing final reveals.

    And you can't help but feel Soderbergh's steady influence throughout these proceedings. His signature look and feel aside, it's the calm ease with which he ushers us through this transition; the seamless joins where one genre ends and the other begins. And despite the fact that mystery movies by now have the been-there-done-that feel to them, through key sequences and cleverly framed moments, Soderbergh never loses our attention for a second. When Emily drives her car into a wall, for instance, it's clearly stated to be a suicidal attempt, a cry for help in her time of mental anguish. But when this is shown to be something else entirely, all but the most suspicious of viewers will be taken by surprise by a trick which has been seen many times before. Or when Emily breaks down at a party, we see it as an understandable display of a complex emotion which Emily must be going through. Yet when it, too, is shown in its true light, it once again takes us by surprise. This rejuvenation of an often clichéd genre is what sets Stephen Soderbergh apart from a director who may have taken the work at face value. It's his understanding of the genre and its tropes which makes it possible for him to pull off such a blindside on an audience who are used to being blindsided.

    Audiences aren't surprised by things anymore. Twist endings have less and less effect the more they are used. And they are used often. Time and time again, audience members, myself included, walk out of a cinema saying, "I saw that coming." We've been conditioned not to trust anyone on the screen. The Usual Suspects taught us that the most convincing of narrators can be false. Citizen Kane taught us to look for the tiniest detail. Planet of the Apes taught us to think on a wider scale. We know this twist-ending stuff back to front. In light of this, Stephen Soderbergh has pulled off something of a coup d'etat on our understandings. This is a director pulling a switch on a genre, not just a plot; something which is entirely more difficult to do and much more difficult to predict. If this is confirmed to be the film he's going out on, he's going out with a bang.

    But it would be more of a whimper if the cast didn't bring their A-game, and they definitely do. Rooney Mara, already having garnered critical acclaim for her tough, raw performance in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is fantastic as Emily; the depressed wife of a con-man newly released from prison. In keeping with Soderbergh's sleight of hand, Mara is 100% believable as both the housewife in the throes of depression, sinking in a sea of anti-anxiety pills and anti-depressants, as well as her second act counterpart as a scheming mastermind. It's a fantastic performance, not as explosive or shocking as her 2011 role, but no less demanding. She has more emotion to work with here, more sides to her character, and she plays them all with utter conviction.

    But as the film does an about face, so too does its leading character, jumping from Emily to her doctor, Jonathan Banks, played by Jude Law. Law has always proven to be an impressive actor but he hasn't had many chances to show it recently. Here, finally given a chance, he brings the talent which made him such a valuable commodity in the first place, moving from professional therapist to quivering wreck as he lands under the microscope of a massive investigation, then to seemingly paranoid conspiracy theorist and finally to satisfied victor. It's a performance which demands a huge range and Law displays just that, never failing to connect with the audience whether he's harassing Emily or desperately trying to convince his wife to stand by him. Catherine Zeta-Jones is all fire and energy in her small but important role and Channing Tatum shows his ever-increasing skill as Emily's ill-fated husband, but at the centre of the film are the two performances from Jude Law and Rooney Mara, and they both do a fantastic job.

    But it really is Soderbergh's film. Though he's never onscreen, his presence is always felt, through either his understated, murky style of filming which walks some unseen line between realism and fairytale so deftly that he is able to jump between one or the other at will. Or through the ease with which he's able to change so quickly from devastating drama to paranoid thriller without tipping his hand. It's impressive work from someone who has always been a generator of impressive work and the movie scene will be that much poorer in his absence.
  • aquateen2
    April 11, 2013
    aquateen2
    [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]
  • Julie
    April 1, 2013
    Julie
    Did not see that coming, which always impresses me. Cause I'm a good guesser.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    March 11, 2013
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    How often do we get films this good so early in the year? "Side Effects" is a great film, a new release that has all the class and confidence of a classic thriller. If this is to be Soderbergh's last film, it's also one of his best. Hitchcock would be proud.
  • axadntpron
    March 11, 2013
    axadntpron
    I was hoping for Soderbergh's "farewell film" to finally be the perfect marriage of style and substance that his previous film "Traffic" proved could be possible. Unfortunately, what we have instead is typical of his latest efforts.

    It is a taut thriller. One whose direction ele... read morevates material that would have been better suited for a high-minded episode of NYPD Blue. I say high-minded because the first half of the film sets up a smart exploration of culpability in the pharmaceutical age. But unfortunately devolves into a revenge tale featuring as many twists and turns as the Cyclone.

    Should Soderbergh decide that he isn't throwing in the towel, I hope that he can finally team up with an equally able writer and start producing the type of work that we all know he is capable of.
  • fb100001050230219
    March 10, 2013
    fb100001050230219
    A director making their last feature would usually pull out all the stops and give us something thrilling, gripping and using every opportunity they are given. Soderbergh does all of this, but in the most effortless and, dare I say it, Hitchcockian way possible. The performances ... read moreare terrific, the characters are interesting and Jude Law's character in particular, is very easy to connect with. It's twisty, surprising and never lets go of your attention thanks to Burns' superb script and Soderbergh's excellent direction, including a few neat camera tricks. This is easily the best film of 2013 so far and a great send-off to Soderbergh's directing career.
  • 366weirdmovies
    March 8, 2013
    366weirdmovies
    A psychiatrist prescribes a cutting-edge antidepressant for a suicidal woman who has resisted other treatments. It works, except that she suffers a strange side effect; she now sleepwalks and doesn't remember anything she does during the blackout. Steven Soderbug's swan song lurc... read morehes unsteadily from drama to medical/legal thriller while taking some passing swipes at the pharmaceutical industry, before finally settling down into a satisfying, noirish mystery.
  • jarobb3
    March 2, 2013
    jarobb3
    Steven Soderbergh does it again. Mind = blown.

View All Side Effects Reviews

Critic Reviews

Ben Walters
March 5, 2013
Ben Walters, Time Out

As a thriller in the Hitchcock mould, 'Side Effects' is great fun: its characters are well acted without being entirely likeable, which makes their jeopardy all the more enjoyable while putting us at ... Full Review

Ian Buckwalter
March 1, 2013
Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic

Soderbergh is less interested in making statements than he is in skillfully fulfilling genre expectations. Full Review

Christopher Orr
February 11, 2013
Christopher Orr, The Atlantic

A crafty teaser that presents itself as one kind of film before gradually evolving into another kind altogether. I, for one, enjoyed both enormously. Full Review

Richard Roeper
February 8, 2013
Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com

Steven Soderbergh is one of our best and most versatile directors. Full Review

Peter Howell
February 8, 2013
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Side Effects is a cracking thriller that ranks amongst Soderbergh's best, featuring electric performances by Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum. Full Review

Richard Corliss
February 8, 2013
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

Side Effects virtually demands a three-word review: Just see it. Full Review

Rene Rodriguez
February 8, 2013
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

The main thing to keep in mind while watching Steven Soderbergh's playful new thriller is not to take the movie too seriously or else you'll feel betrayed by the end. Full Review

Peter Rainer
February 8, 2013
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns maintain a tone of taut creepiness, but the plot's double and triple crosses are more ingenious than believable. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
February 8, 2013
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

"Side Effects" does a nice job teasing current anxieties about depression, medical ethics and class striving with the classic thriller quandary of "Who's playing whom?" Full Review

Stephen Whitty
February 8, 2013
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

[It] will both keep you on your toes and at the edge of your seat. Full Review

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