thoughts on Side Effects

A young man, Martin Taylor (Channing Tatum), returns home after serving four years in prison for insider trading. His wife, Emily (Rooney Mara), seems happy to see him, but it soon begins to seem that she is suicidal; she runs her car into a brick wall in a parking garage. A psychiatrist, Dr. Banks (Jude Law), is sent to consult with her in the hospital; she claims that she just "lost it" for a minute and refuses to be institutionalized, though she agrees to outpatient psychiatric care. He prescribes a couple of anti-depressants that don't work; she asks about Ablixa, a new drug that is currently being advertised and that she claims she heard about from a friend. It seems to work great-- she has more energy and more of a sex drive-- but it makes her walk in her sleep; one night her husband finds her up cooking in the middle of the night, music blaring, and when he tries to talk with her, she acts as if she can't see or hear him. Dr. Banks is told of this side effect, and Martin asks if there is something else she can take, but Emily is insistent about staying on Ablixa. Next thing any of them know, Martin is dead; Emily stabs him multiple times, supposedly in her sleep, and supposedly as a result of Ablixa.

This is really where our story begins. Emily is found not guilty by reason of insanity and institutionalized until Dr. Banks deems that she is fit to return to society. Along the way, a number of questions come up: was it Dr. Banks's responsibility to take her off of Ablixa when she reported the side effects? Is it possible that she's not crazy, at all? If not, does it even matter, in a country where there are Double Jeopardy laws that prevent her from being retried? And why is a psychiatrist that she saw for a short time after her husband's arrest, Dr. Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones) coming around again?

I saw this movie with my friend Melinda, and at one point I had to refrain from whispering to her, "This is like a nightmare." Things that were particularly scary to me:

1) The doctor prescribes Emily her first anti-depressant after a conversation that lasts maybe five minutes. He doesn't know her. He knows that she seems to have attempted suicide and that her husband recently got out of prison. That's it. She basically has to agree to take said anti-depressant to be released from the hospital. When it doesn't work, he's fairly quick to suggest something else, and he doesn't hesitate much when she asks to take a drug that she's "heard about from a friend." He also has what seems like an inordinate amount of power over her future once she murders her husband and is institutionalized. I have no idea if any of this is realistic, but I find the idea of a doctor being so casual about prescribing one drug and then another, and then having so much power over a patient who is arguably at least partly in her current predicament because of a drug he prescribed, HORRIFYING. This made me sincerely hope that I never have to see a psychiatrist.

2) Emily supposedly wakes up from a nap and finds out that she MURDERED HER HUSBAND IN HER SLEEP. Can you imagine anything worse, really? I mean, she was supposedly under the influence of a drug when this happened, but people sleepwalk and do more innocuous things in their sleep all the time. Again: terrifying.

3) There are people in this world who are capable of carrying out very complicated schemes to do very bad things, and who feel no remorse afterwards. I can't talk more about that without giving away more of the plot than I should, but that is perhaps the scariest thing of all: that there are people out there who are both evil and smarter than you, and if you are unfortunate enough to get tangled up with one of them, your life will be ruined. Period.

All of these terrifying things take place in a movie that is very well-done. Rooney Mara is FANTASTIC. She has this face that can seem innocent and fragile one moment and capable of doing terrible things the next, and in every movie I've seen her in (the others have been The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), she comes across as the smartest person in any room. Sometimes, but not always, she seems superior. All of this works for this movie. Channing Tatum is also incredibly well-cast here; he has this sort of bland, rich pretty boy look about him. He also comes across as just a little bit dumb, but like a very nice, well-intentioned guy. He doesn't have as much to do as Rooney Mara or Jude Law, but I think it takes a very specific actor to be all of the things that Martin is supposed to be here: regretful of the consequences of insider trading and the way they have affected his and his wife's lives but not so much sorry for actually doing it ("It's part of the culture," he says at one point); concerned about his wife's well-being and guilty about the role he has played in her problems, yet somewhat frustrated that things can't just go back to normal. Jude Law also is good here; like his character's patients, I would imagine, you want to trust him but are a little bit suspicious of him, as well. No one here is completely squeaky-clean, and you have to imagine all of them capable of doing not-so-great things at different times, and I thought the casting really worked here.

I'm realizing that I haven't talked about Catherine Zeta-Jones much here, and in fact, when I was telling my mom about this movie this morning, she interrupted me at one point to ask, "Wait, isn't Catherine Zeta-Jones in this? What's her part in it?" The thing is is that her character is sort of just a pawn in a larger scheme, and while she's convincing enough in her role, she doesn't leave much of an impression. Maybe another actor could have done more with what she was given?

Bottom line, though: terrifying, thought-provoking movie with largely excellent performances.

thoughts on Nashville 2/6/13

Jeez, whoever puts the previews together for Nashville is GOOD, man! Next week? Is the songwriter guy back? I somehow think that whatever happens to Rayna onstage won't end her career, but-- oh, the drama!

So, Teddy slept with someone else first, and he was the one who asked for a divorce. Good. Now she can get out of the marriage virtually guilt-free and things can start to get good...as if they haven't already. The elevator scene didn't disappoint. I really liked how they built up to it with other elevator scenes throughout the episode. Also...once again I find all of Rayna's relationship drama strangely comforting. Any time I have a crush I get kind of frustrated because I feel like I'm acting like I'm twelve, but watching Rayna and Deacon staring at their phones-- debating whether to text the other one, wishing the other one would text them-- and then seeing Deacon sort of dancing around in the hallway, debating whether to go see her, only to be deterred by Teddy, I was like, "Yeah, stuff never changes."

As for the minor storylines-- sweet, if Rayna signs Scarlett and Gunner to her record label, that will bring them into the main storyline the way I've been wanting. Juliette's "I'm a girl!" song at the beginning made my eyes grow huge with the ridiculousness of it all-- the lyrics, the dancing, and Deacon, a grown-ass man, standing there looking like a moron through the whole thing. The song she wrote with Deacon was good, and yeah, both the negative tweets and positive feedback made sense-- obviously the people who came to the concert came to see her hits and probably wouldn't like it, but a larger audience would dig it. I got so frustrated with the record exec-- does an artist really have to go to such lengths just to do anything different, ever? I suspect the answer is yes, because people try to talk you out of making changes/taking risks even when you're not some big star, but-- man, that must be frustrating.

Another great episode! Loved it!