After
a few years of forgettable performances in undistinguished movies Jude
Law started a ‘comeback’ with the Sherlock Holmes movies, stage
performances and continues with a stellar performance as a psychiatrist
in “Side Effects”. His character makes a complete change from when we
first meet him willing to take $50,000 from a pharmaceutical company to
test a drug to the aftermath with one of his patients to when he finds
himself fighting to get back all he lost.

All
of us have heard the dire side effects of drugs either whispered or
quickly said during TV commercials or glance at the warnings on the
sheet of paper the pharmacist gives us with the bottle of pills. Could
one of the side effects of this new medicine cause a patient to kill? If
it does who is to blame? The patient? The Doctor?

When
we first meet Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) she is awaiting her husband’s
release from jail after his serving time for insider training. A short
time after Martin Taylor (Channing Tatum) comes home we see Emily
driving her car into a concrete wall and while in the hospital she is
tended to by Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) who subscribes a new trial
drug Ablixa.

Along
the way we meet Martin’s mother (Ann Dowd), Dr. Victoria Siebert
(Catherine Zeta-Jones) who was, at one time, Emily’s doctor and Deirdre
Banks (Vinessa Shaw) Dr. Bank’s wife. All performances hold up under
scrutiny and after you see the movie that will be an important
conversation regarding the movie.

What
starts as a psychological movie turns into a mystery thriller with just
a few too many twists at the end. The screenplay by Scott Z. Burns is
smartly written until the end where even he seems confused about exactly
who did what and why. Director Steven Soderbergh, who claims this is
his last motion picture, does a good job except for one too many close
ups of Rooney Mara using her hair as a frame. The music of Thomas Newman
blends in with the movie offering underscoring of important parts.

“Side
Effects” lightly touches on doctors selling out to pharmaceutical
companies, gets a little deeper into how various pills can affect a
person’s being and hits with a couple of twists that you won’t see
coming. With all the good to say about the film the final side effects
will, maybe, to reread your medicine warnings and throw the pills out
and/or asking, “What?” as you walk out of the auditorium.