Trailer of the week: Side Effects

Published on 07/11/2012 18:08

A MYSTERIOUS thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh that retains said mystery because the trailer is... well, mysterious. Which is a nice change.

What is it?

A new psychological thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z Burns, who worked with Soderbergh on his recent film Contagion.

What’s it about?

It’s not exactly clear from the trailer – which makes a refreshing change from the many that give away the entire plot of a movie before you’ve seen it. Jude Law is a therapist who prescribes a new kind of drug, Ablixa, to Rooney Mara (star of the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, looking very different here, obviously). Channing Tatum is her husband. Someone gets murdered. Things don’t work out too well for Jude. We know this because he has one of those scenes where someone frantically shouts “I want my life back!” Catherine Zeta Jones is lurking in the background too, looking vaguely villainous.

Does it look any good?

It’s Soderbergh being smart but populist (see Contagion, Traffic, Haywire) rather than obtusely experimental (Che, Solaris, The Girlfriend Experience). Usually that works out well, but we’ll find out in March next year.