Side Effects was one of those movies that I didn't watch because of how if was apparently received by quite a number of people. It didn't even get a great rating on it's IMDB page and so I just left it or ignored it till I eventually forgot about it. However recently I decided to try it when a family member of mine swore it was a good movie. I haven't regretted watching it since.

When Side Effects begins we the audience are introduced to a couple who I automatically believed would be the main characters. The actress Rooney Mara played a young woman Emily who is struggling with chronic depression, and Channing Tatum played her husband Martin who had just gotten out of prison. Martin is very supportive of his wife and her illness even when she tried to kill herself by crashing her car into a wall. It is through this incident that she meets the psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks who she begins having sessions with. Dr. Banks recommends that she try an experimental drug named Ablixa since nothing else seems to be working for her. The drug seems to do wonders for her until she stabs her husband to death in her sleep. The murder threatens the career and family of Dr. Banks, and even resurrects something that happened in his past. When people begin to blame him and his entire life seems to be crumbling, he does his own investigation and realises that everything is not
as it seems.

If you get to watch it, you'll realise that the best thing about the movie "Side Effects" is that the plot tries it's best to be as unpredictable as possible; and so throughout the movie it throws these clever twists and curveball at you. That's what makes it so suspenseful. For example there was the conspiracy with the Ablixa and the other drug whereas after the murder the Ablixa sales took a huge downturn and the other skyrocketed. Banks finds this out in the scene where he speaks to one of the people in charge of the study.

Despite the fact that I loved the plot, I thought more work could have been done on the characterization. At the beginning of the movie
When I met the main character Emily, I had begun to wish that the director had found a way to tell her story more clearly, and thus I could receive more background information on both her and Martin. However for the most part her past remained obscure even though I understand why now. Nevertheless even when Emily was reminiscing and relating the story of how she met Dr. Seibert to Banks and her previous relationship with Martin I still needed more.

I have a love-hate relationship with the acting in Side Effects. The thing I liked about the acting was that it seemed subtle for the most part, which I believed was convenient for the very realistic storyline. On the other hand I was also disappointed in it because I thought that it was just "okay" when I expected more from the likes of veterans such as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jude Law who I thought gave me half of a performance. For example, Zeta-Jones played Dr. Seibert who Emily was having a lesbian relationship with. She came off as crooked and fake to me in the beginning with her calm and arrogant air. I believe that ruined her character tremendously for me since I believe that had Zeta-Jones appeared more genuine and concerned and then morphed into a cold-hearted monster it would have had more dramatic effect.
I was also a little conflicted about the ending as a solution to the conflict in the storyline. Dr. Banks ends up having Emily put back in a mental hospital after tricking everyone into believing she has lapsed back to insanity. I just didn't believe it was an appropriate punishment for her husband's murder.

I still loved this movie so much I've recommended it to three people o far. The plot alone makes it thrilling and as time goes by the suspense increases.