Side Effects

Anxiety, nervous sweating and palpitations make Emily Taylor’s life a misery. Yet this young woman has every reason to be happy now that her beloved husband is due to be released from prison. But after his return her emotional state deteriorates still further. The psychotropic drugs she is prescribed stabilise her condition but lead to blackouts. One day her husband is found in their apartment, brutally stabbed to death. The trail of blood leads to Emily, who claims not to remember anything. Ambitious psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Banks takes on her case and examines the side effects of her medication.
Steven Soderbergh generally uses genre cinema to highlight political scandals or social conditions. Having revealed the dark side of US narco-policy in his thriller Traffic, which screened at the Berlinale in 2001, in this current psychological thriller he investigates the machinations of pharmaceutical companies. In order to find the truth, his protagonist Banks must lock horns with the dubious psychiatrist Dr Erica Siebert and swallow a number of bitter pills indeed.