A young woman Emily Taylor suffers the side effects from drugs prescribed by her psychiatrist Jonathan Banks to help cope with her depression, which takes a different turn when her husband is released from prison after 4 years inside.
Everything is not what it seems in this film as it takes many twists and turns throughout. They may become obvious but just when you think ah yes I have worked it out, it took another turn which was only a good thing really as it kept going at a decent pace throughout. A film which takes a look into depression and how medications can help or actually hinder the person who is suffering. I guess this film really does make you think about what the side effects of taking drugs can be, even if they are prescribed for you.
That’s without really getting into the different twists this film takes, it shows that if your on certain drugs you may no longer have much control over your actions. Becoming a different version of yourself, or at least that is something I took from watching this film. Making you wonder if you could deal with depression or how you could battle against it. I also found the differences between the UK and US attitudes towards psychiatrists very interesting and spot on with the UK looking at it like you have a problem and the US that you’re getting better.
Anyway getting back to the film, I really can’t make my mind up about whether I like Rooney Mara or not. Her performance is pretty awkward and annoying at times which probably fits the character well but she doesn’t seem to show much emotion at all, even when she is supposed to be more emotional. I thought Jude Law was brilliant and put in the best performance in the film. Catherine Zeta Jones’ character was interesting and as a big fan I would have liked to see her with more screen time but I thought she was effective in the scenes she was in. Channing Tatum didn’t really get much screen time . . .
This is a difficult review to put together without actually spoiling anything about the film, I would say give it ago as it does have some very good twists and ideas really. Better than I expected it to be as wasn’t really sure what it was going to be like, I thought the pace was very good starting off slow to build it up to when they would all be playing each other (I promise that doesn’t give anything major away).
I probably would give this film a second viewing when it comes onto the TV as it really was thought provoking and had plenty of things going on, might be one of those films where you miss a few things the first time round. Are you now thinking of the side effects pills have???
