Side Effects- Soderbergh's "last" is trashy, campy fun

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 6:13pm

I thought Magic Mike had the potential to be a male version of Showgirls, but it was more boring than anything else. It turns out the truly campy movie Soderbergh had up his sleeve was Side Effects. The final act is so outlandish and silly that my audience was cracking up right and left!

CZJ, donning goofy "psychiatrist" glasses, is delicious everytime she's on screen. I really do like Channing, but he is so miscast her. The movie begins with him being paroled from prison for INSIDER TRADING! Yes, we are meant to believe that Tatum is the mastermind behind some Madoff type scheme.

Rooney Mara and Jude Law give good performances, but the story gets so crazy and far-fetched they really don't have much to work with.

Soderbergh's camera work is interesting, and you can tell it's one of his films, but this is not his best work. Maybe it's for the best that he's "retiring" for a while. Maybe he'll have time to regroup and then make a return with a truly great movie.

I do highly recommend Side Effects though for all the unintentional laughter!

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 7:24pm

Looking forward to this and am expecting a crazy ride. I'll take a Haywire-like ride.

Also in defense of Magic Mike, I probably liked it more than others on this board, but in that excellent Soderbergh interview with Vulture.com he compared MM to Saturday Night Fever in terms being a film that is largely misunderstood by its premise rather than a really dark drama that it is. I agree with that. But SNF (that has really become underrated over time) also has nobody outdoing Travolta the way McConaughey (who should have gotten an Oscar nomination) does to Channing Tatum (who is still a very charismatic presence in the film along with Alex Pettyfer). And Cody Horn holds no candle to either Karen Lynn Gurney or Donna Pescow.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 7:37pm

I liked Haywire a lot. It was fun, but self-aware; it knew it was fluff. Side Effects takes itself very seriously and that's why it veers into camp.

My biggest problem with MM was that it didn't end up being what the film was marketed as. I also realize that isn't really Soderbergh's fault.

In a way Side Effects didn't feel like the trailer either. I thought it was going to be that Jude Law was being framed for some murder/crime, but that's not what's it's about.

It starts out as a (heavy-handed) commentary on the depression/anxiety drug companies. Every character says something like, "But I saw the commercial on tv and it looks like it really works!"

SPOILERS BELOW***************

Of course this is all a red herring as Rooney Mara's character was flushing all the pills down the toliet, except the Ablixia, which she admitted had no effect on her. She was doing everything in her right mind. There were NO side effects- so what was with all the posturing about the drug companies in the first half of the movie about?!

When they revealed CZJ and Rooney were having a lesbian affair I looked at my friend and burst into laughter. Rooney seducing her on the therapist coach was just too much. The plan they concocted was so ludicrous too. I just didn't buy any of it for a second.

[romantico]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:15pm

Isn't his Liberace bio pic his 'official' last film?

Updated On: 2/10/13 at 08:15 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:22pm

Technically "Behind the Candelabra" is his lift directorial effort, but it's a TV movie and not for big screen, so Side Effects will be his last feature film.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:31pm

I thought Behind the Candelabra was already done but the issue was whether it could be a theatrical release or not (and yes, Soderbergh blamed institutionalized homophobia in the industry way back when the project was in development that made this a TV movie).

[east side story]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:32pm

Didn't Rooney Mara turn down the lead in "Zero Dark Thirty" to do this film?

Oopsies.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/10/13 at 8:43pm

In her defense she also took a Malick movie and Ain't Them Bodies Saints that got a lot of positive feedback at Sundance.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/12/13 at 7:59am

Includes spoilers:

Mara is great. The movie starts out great. And could have been great, trashy fun if the plot hadn't gotten so murky. The story is very good and should have been shaped far more clearly, but wasn't, By the denouement, there is so much going on that it is difficult to concentrate or remember all the fact elements (and, especially, the money-related ones, the manipulation of stock price is brought up but not at the right time to make clear what the hell is really going on as it relates to the triangulation between Mara, Law and Jones) that would bring to light what is actually going on.


Also, certain plot elements that could have easily been altered make no sense when one gives them more than a passing thought:

spoilers:

the placebo: People do react to placebos. That's the "placebo effect" Therefore, Emily's behavior during the "test" told nothing about whether she was faking or not.

what the hell was Emiiy's lawyer doing at the last scene at the office?

As the d.a. clearly knows everything by the end of the movie, it seems odd he would allow the separate felony of Emily being fraudulently drugged; if he is doing it for a perverse punishment - like Jude Lawe is - then that should have been made clear as well.

This is all a shame because it could have been a much, much better movie.