Side Effects: "One pill can change your life!"

I Just went to see Side Effects. It’s a psychological thriller, lets face it: it was going to happen. So it’s Directed by Steven Soderbergh who also directed Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve. So you know that you’re getting something that’s fast-paced and gripping. Jude Law’s in it and so is Catherine Zeta-Jones and the less famous Rooney Mara who played quite a convincing depressed person.

So without giving too much away, Emily, the main character, suffers from depression after her husband, Martin was sent to prison for some unknown crime. She waits for him (sweet), only her depression takes a toll on their relationship. She is treated by a new doctor, Jude Law’s character, who prescribes her a newly released antidepressant called ABLIXA. And this is when, surprise, surprise…things start going wrong. Like, really wrong.

Let me start off by saying that whatever expectations you have about this film are going to be shattered pretty much the moment the film begins. We are told after the beginning scene that this is going to be a circular narrative and so are naturally eager to find out about the events which led up to the bloody scene which we are presented with at the beginning.

Halfway through the film you think you’ve figured out the plot. Well let me just tell you that no. no, you haven’t. The full extent of the narrative will slowly dawn upon you within the last 15-20 minutes. In fact, I feel as though I need to re-watch this film in order for me to piece together all the information correctly, because (as my mind works at a glacial speed) I missed a great deal. But what I did get MADE SENSE.

Let’s just talk about the underlying message of this film. We take a hell of a lot of pills. Especially Americans. Oh, that reminds me; there was one quote which summed up the difference between pill taking tendencies of the UK and the USA: “In the UK, if you’re taking pills, that means you’re sick. In the US, taking pills means you’re getting better.” That quote has crazy connotations! But so has the film! There were people popping pills to get ready for job interviews. This is the kind of world we live in, people! At one point they even mentioned that a lot of the pills were actually placebos. What has that got to say about the people who take them and actually get better as a result? That they weren't really ill in the first place, that’s what.

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About the dialogue. I usually notice when dialogue is bad because when dialogue is bad, it is very, very bad, and when dialogue good…well, I’m less likely to notice. Sounds pretty lame, I know, but I’m far more likely to notice bad dialogue because, for example, someone answering the phone and saying “Hello, brother. Thank you for calling me to remind me that you are coming over to visit me later” well, its just crap and it negates all the effort that the director and actors have put into creating a believable world. So anyway, I didn’t notice anything bad about the dialogue, and I think the script overall must have been very good because just when you think you're secure in your own smug knowledge about what's going to go down, the writer (Scott Z. Burns) is like “PSYCH!” And then throws you off guard again.

The music was pretty good in creating suspense, and there were some interesting camera angles going on. Angles that almost had me tilting my head to the side and then I realised that, as an audience member, I shouldn’t have to do a damn thing but sit in my damn seat and be fed information.

So overall, I am experiencing some pretty good side effects from watching this film. (Sorry, it had to be done)

Good day!

P.S. If you enjoyed this film, you'll probably also enjoy Limitless. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/?ref_=sr_1

8/10

Equilibrium. “The disease is human emotion!”

This, I came across on Netflix last night. It’s a sci fi thriller/ action film directed and written by Kurt Wimmer. So a couple of seconds in, we’re told that, in this dystopian future, it is against the law to feel emotion. I roll my eyes at this point. Then there’s the explanation. Quite often in sci fi films set in a world differing from ours, there has to be some kind of explanation of what has happened to make it that way, usually with the assistance of a voice over or subtitles where one paragraph fades to make way for the next. However in Equilibrium we have both subtitles and voiceover, only the subtitles didn’t display all of what was said in the voiceover, but select highlights. It was like watching an advert. A really boring advert.

But stick with it. I’m so glad I did. Because after the back story is fed numbly to us, Christian Bale walks in with his squad of emotionless beings and the action begins.

 

Here’s the plot. Bale’s character, John, is a high-ranking officer of a team of law enforcers. The world in which these people live has been created separate from the old world in which there are too many relics which may inspire emotion (art, literature, etc.) Emotion is forbidden in this new world because hate is what caused a 3^rd world war. The inhabitants of this totalitarian society have to administer an emotion repressing serum to themselves using this strange injection which also looks like a gun (into their neck, no less). Yum. Bale’s character drops his daily dosage one evening. Eventually he grows addicted to emotion cue all the crazy sh*t that’s about to go down.

There were some weird visual effects. One scene had Bale shooting at people in complete darkness and so the only light emitted was that from the gun as he shot it creating lightening type visuals. It was pretty exciting. I like Wimmer’s style.

This is probably the only situation in which describing dialogue as being devoid of emotion be a complement. And that is exactly what it was for the most part. And, to be honest, I think that is probably a hard thing to do!

Another difficult task was actually playing the role of an emotionless human being. The cast were brilliant. Bale, after stopping his dosage, had to play a man who had feelings but had to act as someone who didn't  It was acting within acting. Inception acting.

 

Ironically, through trying to prevent a war by eradicating emotion, they were actually at war with emotion which, in turn, lead to the uprise of a resistance. Bottom line? Humans love war? I must say, this film did not leave me with a positive outlook on life or on human nature. I do, however, think that it was an amazing film.

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

And to all of you who are familiar with Blake Snyder: I thought it was pretty funny that Bale’s character’s “save the cat moment” was actually a “save the dog moment”. Lol.

Also, if you want to see Christian Bale in another emotionless role, watch American Psycho. He really nails it.

8/10

Why?

This picture encapsulates everything we should be feeling after watching a good thriller: cathartic, slightly traumatised, yet undeniably serene. The thriller genre evokes our voyeuristic tendencies and underlying fears in order to entertain us. There is something about seeing the world through the eyes of someone just like ourselves, and seeing that world transform into something deadly. 

What is it about the thriller genre that attracts millions to it? It is the ability it gives us to live our greatest fears through a fictional character in order to help us purge those feelings of anxiety that we link with certain things. It is a need to be scared, a need to feel the instability, not in our own, but in other people's lives. Why else would we read gossip magazines? Why else would we use social media to find out about the personal lives of others? Why else would we stop to gawk at an accident on a busy road? Because it gives us a way in which to live an alternate life temporarily, while forgetting about our own. 

What is is about the thriller genre that we love? We love to know that, whatever happens to us, someone, somewhere out there is worse off than us. We want to know that our lives aren't all that bad, and that, in fact, in comparison to some others, our lives are pretty great, so great, that we can afford to waste our time experiencing simulations of alternate existences.

I happen to be one of these people. Join me in my quest for the perfect thriller.