Side Effects (2012)

           According to the New Yorker magazine, director Steven Soderbergh has made twenty-six movies in twenty-four years. This psycho-thriller begins as a study of mental illness (clinical depression) and what it does to a marriage. For the last hour of the movie Soderbergh piles on layer after layer of complexity, which is a nice way of saying that the movie begins in one place and ends in a different one. There's addiction to prescription medications, medical misconduct and malpractice, patient transfer, Big Pharma and the toxic side effects of its drugs, advertising ("You see their advertisements on television, people are getting better!"), the conflicts of interest between medicine and corporations, the legal system, ruined families and careers, and, at the end of the day, a financial scam. Interestingly, Soderbergh, who is just fifty, says this is his last film, and that he's now turning to painting. Stay tuned.