Side Effects, of being both depressed and a criminal

To my surprise, Side Effects gave something more than a dull, predictable narration of how destructing people with mental issues are for others and themselves. In fact it's a story about deception, acting and the rotten nature of today's financial and stock market system.

 

Emily (Rooney Mara), hardly a femme-fatale but an admitted pretty girl, accepts her long-sentenced husband back at home. One would expect this would make her happy; at last they can be a couple again and leave the past behind. But no, Martin's (Channing Tatum) not found the secret to make a woman happy.

 

Her having a nice job working on a Mac as a designer is not enough (jobless designers you can now facepalm). Having a f*cking awesome cool woman boss is not enough. Having a nice car and a home as the minimum American Dream suggets is not enough. Having a non-bitch mother-in-law is not enough. Having a husband who's willing to make her happy and finding soon a Houston based business opportunity, is not enough.

 

No, she has to get depressed, sleepwalking, crying out of the blue for no reason, scaring an underground security emploee to death by attempting to fall on the tracks, and finally smashing in her shiny car directly on a garage. Wearing the seatbelt... Even so, her innocent cute eyes manage to convinve Dr. Banks (Jude Law) to let her avoid hospitalization and go home, leading to his eventual doom.

 

We have to admit, Emily's a super successful depressed person. She ruins her future, herself and her beloved ones just as most people with mental issues do. She even ruins her doctor's life! And while far so this girl has caused us the ultimate rage-face with her doings, she remains the victim! In fact, in order to tell us how miserable Emily is - as most depressed people - the director Steven Soderbergh shows us the stock-market style negotiations among doctors and pharmaceutical companies' representatives. There's big money here in drug promotion, a game in which everyone has a role: patients are the guinea-pigs, doctors are simple contractors and the state thrives through its absence.

Anyway, the film wishes not to focus on this, or it won't have time to proceed to a more spicy development. Besides, the first 40 mins find you yawning, since the view of a zombie-girl staring at the air can't be very exciting.

 

The all-mighty doctor 'n' gloating Jude Law has a really hard time when carefree Emily slaughters her husband like a chicken; she's technically nuts, so the authorities are tempted to blame Dr. Banks for not predicting the side-effects caused by that new drug Ablixa - suspiciously recommended by the cunning Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Banks was supposed to lock Emily up in an institution in the first place when she decided to crash her car.

 

The case turns into a national-wide scandal and the media lust for the "body" of Banks, who in the meanwhile is dumped by his wife. Of course, he's not an idiot. Quickly, he discovers Emily's fake depression and that behind all this is a lesbian plot devised by Emily and her girlfriend, ex-doc Victoria. It seems the two sluts set Banks up to cause a financial meltdown of Ablixa's producer's stocks. Right after, a rival-pharma company's stocks would soar making the lesbian stockholder couple rich, very rich. I wonder if the SEC would ever see to something like that.

 

+1 to a film showing exactly how unjust a financial and stockmarket system is, that allows greedy minds to make lots of money out of thin air, or worse, out of an acting that looks legal.

The truth is the two womens' plan was brilliant, while the lesbian affection scenes adds quite a nice touch of .. interest. Well-acting Jude Law is worth to watch, especially how he outsmarts the two females proving once more how bitchy they can be to each other.

 

Sorry to say this, but, Catherine stays attractive but looks like a mess. It's ironical to play the psychiatries while it is said she had psychological issues herself. A remarkable woman and actress, nevertheless.

 

As for Emily, well. A girl who decides to wait years for her husband's release from jail in order to murder him and get herself on a trial; and all this to avenge the money and luxury taken away from her, well, surely is not 100% sane.

 

If you're sane, you break up like a normal person and you go live the passion with the woman or the boy you love. Perhaps Emily did need the medication after all.

 

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Broken City: vote for the wig!

Mark Wahlberg plays former police officer Billy Taggart, now a private detective in the new action movie by Allen Hughes “Broken City”. The title refers to no other city than New York during the pre-election period for local governors.

There are two candidates: Nicholas Hostetler and Jack Valliant. One is bad, the other is good, as in such films there is no other option, you gotta accept it. This battle between good and evil has become so trivial! Like we couldn’t see vegetarians vs meat lovers, or Lady Gaga fans vs Rihanna fans... Please!

Naturally, no case, no crime, no punishment, no pre-election campaign can take place without a couple of sexy women legs. The law of Hollywood here is impenetrable and clear, no exceptions. So the leg-role is given to Catherine Zeta Jones, playing the insatiably charming and mysterious wife of Russel, who for some reason I strongly believe wears a wig. Ah, old age doesn’t come alone... How one can fall from being a sexy gladiator to running for office... Following Arnold’s steps, even though the latter become a governor, which is more impressive I’d say.

Billy Taggart commits a murder then due to excessive enthusiasm. As a result, his badge, gun and macho attitude are taken away from him and he ends up as a private detective dealing with lover cheats, squabbles, petty larcenies and such. Obviously this transformation from a criminal hunter to a family fortune teller has broken his spirit, it’s not exactly an alternative... Mayor Hostetler however hires him to find his wife’s lover and Billy begins to remember old times. Things like financial scandals make it complicated though.

Action comes in place basically when Catherine appears. I have to admit she’s really, really impressive. Now the scriptwriter messes up what was unfolding as a quite interesting plot by choosing to collate many different stories and events to keep suspense up. In the end we watch a bunch of irrelevant scenes. For instance, I don’t really think it was necessary to learn about how the sister of Billy’s wife died. Generally Billy’s love life is as boring as a cartoon and, despite so, the film talks about it for just too long!

One more thing. Billy breaks up with his wife because he was too jealous seeing her starring in a porn film. Here Hollywood needs to pay some attention; you can’t have two inapt people fuck each other like there’s no tomorrow and then call this “art”. Ok, this was my thought.

Anyway, later in the film we follow Billy’s endeavour to resolve the Hostetler case that now includes murder, weird alliances, manhunting, debates and of course scandals. A pre-election cycle has never been so much fascinating!

Good and evil intertwines perfectly. Yes! In this film the bad guy is Russel!! He’s finally not wretched, not the victim, not the sexy guy!I won’t comment on the ending, as it’s the top moment when justice is done! For all. For everything. It’s at least surrealistic...
I can say Wahlberg sells as a good decayed detective, even though he turns a little rough sometimes that make him look like a football fan after his team lost the cup. Or, worse, like a doorkeeper who just got his door poohed by a Juck Russel puppy. Dear Mark, you ain’t got rough mate!

Russel gives a well performed sleazy ‘n’ smarmy guy. The wig helps a lot!Catherine is just... gorgeous!

On the other hand, Barry Pepper is a fail-choice. His face radiates permanent misery, which climaxes while he grieves the death of his friend. He’s like an ancient Greek woman mourning during a tragedy for the loss of Thebes city!
To be honest action scenes keep low and are too predictable. Even so, the screenplay flows nicely with enough well given humour and the title "Broken City" was a successful pick to describe badass corruption within politics and finance.

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