Review of Side Effects

A surprising (supposed) final effort by Soderbergh. Commenting on a genre while working within it, playing with gender stereotypes and employing social commentary have always been something that the occasionally very good director has pulled out of his tool belt; yet it has been quite a while since he has been so affecting. "Side Effects" is a strong final effort by the director but I think the real hero of this film belongs to the screenwriter for the very smart script. Every actor does well here with the exception for Zeta-Jones who tramples over all the other understated performances with way too much effort. The film itself gets a little muddied up in the details to try to keep everything moving forward at the very slick pace, but it moves so quickly diverting your attention that you barely have time to think critically about how the scene you are watching relates back to the previous ones. This definitely deserves multiple viewings though it is too slight a film to be given a title such as a "modern noir masterpiece" such as Rian Johnson's "Brick"

I give it a Strong "B" rating or 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.