Steven Soderbergh’s Strange Swan Song
Emily and especially Martin are the kind of intriguingly flawed characters that attract Soderbergh, and though the banker played by Tatum doesn’t get much screen time, the movie becomes a highly watchable clash of personalities as the plot moves in some unexpected directions.
Mara, all sad eyes and cheekbones, makes for a cunning and magnetic presence who hardly needs to raise her voice or her glance to steal scenes. She’s utterly convincing as her character slips into what she calls a “poisonous fog bank” of depression, and she’s so girlish and fragile that the audience can’t help rooting for her to pull out of her downward spiral even as some strange details about her case come to light.
Meanwhile Law does a terrific job with his morally compromised but still essentially decent (we think) physician. His character raises fraught, up-to-the-minute issues about overprescribing of drugs, about hushed-up side effects that might be worse than the disease being treated, and about the ethics of the dealings between doctors and drug companies. Though a feeble movie called Love and Other Drugs covered some of this ground a couple of years ago, Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who previously collaborated on Contagion, have the intelligence to give these points the attention they deserve and do a credible job of working them into the narrative.
Yet the movie is nowhere near as propulsive or compelling as the formidable Contagion, and it becomes more formulaic as it goes on. (In fact, by the end, it pretty well matches the kind of 1940s potboilers Soderbergh imitated in The Good German.) All of this is in the service of keeping you guessing, which Soderbergh does elegantly, though you may or may not feel, at the end, that you got the kind of film you signed up for.
This review must remain vague so as not to spoil the plot, but despite Soderbergh’s evident refusal to make Side Effects too commercial, it will reward those who enjoy a well-crafted (if quiet and low-key) indie effort. Calling such a film a “thriller,” though, is a bit misleading; it’s more of a “thinker.”
****
More new release reviews from John Boot:
I just saw it today and thought it was rather good. Lots of interesting little plot twists and an unexpected ending. Much better than Contagion, IMO.
Not a bad move. Very likable in the end. Intriguing. Its obliqueness reminds me of “The Good Shepperd.” A movie most people seem to have hated, but I liked. The complaint was that it was, like I said, oblique. Or remote. For a spy movie, where you can never know who to trust, I thought it fit perfectly. “Side Effects” keeps you in the dark, but keeps you guessing all the way to the end. Though it was slow in the beginning.
As someone who took anti-anxiety meds, and anti-depressants, for a long time, and then got free of them all, I was a little concerned watching a movie filled with characters taking these meds. These conditions happen to be the most common emotional problems on planet earth. For anyone out there taking these meds, you should know, you too can be free of them. I used the “Attacking Anxiety and Depression” program. It works.
And the movie? Not a keeper, I think. But worth a look.
This fool Soderbergh is a vile pornographer. How could anyone take him seriously after last summer’s sick porn flick, Mag. Mik. He lost ALL credibility as an artist with the cultural poision he spewed across the country this summer with that porno-piece. Why would a morally sane person credit him with such attention as PJMEDIA affords him here? We must be part of the solution, NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM. What is PJEMEDIA doing?? Get it together–we have a culture war to fight, and Soderbergh is a serious enenmy. Get it together!
And try not to think of a purple elephant too. Or maybe I should say; “Don’t turn around Mrs Lot, whatever you do, please don’t turn around, you’ll be sorry.”
Magic Mike is sick porn? I didn’t see it, so I’ll take your word for it. On the other hand, how am I suppose to know for sure, without seeing it? Maybe I will now. Hope I don’t turn into a pillar of salt or something.
Sorry. I was under the impression Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” was sick porn too. Just ask the Church Lady. And that was twenty five years ago. I recently saw it for the first time a year or two ago. Recorded it on disk, because I thought it was good. It didn’t take so long because I believed the Church Lady though. Just one of those things. If you are right about Magic Mike, and Soderbergh, then the good news is, he is retiring. Except I don’t believe him anymore than anyone else does.
If lefties have ruined America, then seeing any movie by them, and I mean any movie, is what needs to be done. You know, to starve them. I told some of my family I would not see these movies, or watch TV anymore. Just read books. Good ones. By conservatives. They pointed out, most publishing houses are owned buy liberals, and they market to conservatives too, not just liberals.
The only way to save America is to make inroads into the culture, and offering something better. That means working with liberals. By necessity. If you want to “get it together,” like liberals do, then you can’t suggest Mr. Soderburgh once had artistic credibility. He’s the enemy. And I don’t want to depress anyone, but I believe most of the internet is owned by liberals too.
Do what I do: Get all your entertainment for free @your library. You’ve already paid for it, anyway. You just have to be willing to wait for the hot new releases in all formats: movies, print books, music CDs, audiobooks. That way you only contribute fractions of pennies to the profits of leftoid companies.
And speaking as middle-aged, religious parent, I can assure you that Magic Mike not only is NOT “sick porn,” it’s actually a very positive message movie, contrasting ambition against self-indulgence. Mr. Boot’s concise description – “a surprisingly well-rounded character study disguised as a girls’ night out movie” – sums it up quite accurately. And if the strip-club scenes offend, one can fast-forward through them without missing anything of the story.