The script was written by Scott Z. Burns who spent ten years of researching psycho-pharmacology and wanted to direct the film himself but after offering it around Hollywood without success eventually brought the project to Soderbergh who decided to direct it. 

The story is told in three acts or as Soderbergh said at the press conference each act is actually a different movie.  The first 35 to 40 minutes of the film revolves around Emily Taylor played by Rooney Mara, nervous and anxious young woman whose husband Martin played by Channing Tatum is in prison for insider trading.  When Martin is released the couple are reunited but Emily’s emotional state deteriorates and her psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Banks played by Jude Law prescribes psychotropic drugs.  When Martin is found stabbed to death Emily is accused of the murder but as the drugs have caused blackouts she can remember nothing.

The film then shifts its point of view to that of Dr Banks and we now become involved in his story.  His reputation is ruined when the drug he prescribed is blamed for causing Emily to murder her husband.  Dr Banks becomes increasingly involved in trying to unravel why the crime took place and who is really guilty.  Jude Law turns in one of the best performances of his career to date with the role. Dr Banks only begins to unravel the truth when he becomes involved with Dr Erica Siebert played by Catherine Zeta-Jones who was formerly Emily’s psychiatrist.

The film seems to be taking a probing look at the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry and its “side effects” while at the same time trying to be a Hitchcockesque thriller and it does not quite succeed in straddling the two genres.

Speaking at the press conference Burns said that he had been interested had become interested in the dramatic possibilities of the intersection between law and psychology when me made a visit to Bellevue Hospital the largest mental hospital in New York and met a doctor who worked in forensic psychiatry there and who eventually became executive producer on the film and undoubtedly is responsible for much of its authenticity in its portrayal of the pharmaceutical industry in the USA.

Burns has said that he wanted to subvert the audience’s expectations and turn everything upside down but the film does not entirely succeed on this front with the feeling that perhaps the audience is being unfairly manipulated at some points during the complex plot with some of its twists and turns not ringing true.  Even Soderbergh’s masterly direction cannot entirely overcome the fact that we do not entirely buy into this game or that the plot has taken perhaps one twist too many.

 

Credits:

Director: Steven Soderbergh
USA 2013
Cast: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum