Side Effects

Halfway through this film, I whispered "This is just like Traffic" - another Steven Sonderberg film.  Helpless young women gets trapped in a web of lies and major forces.  Angry white man tries to rebel against the system.  Where's Michael Douglas when you need him?

Instead of the illegal drug trade, we have here the legal drug trade, the Big Pharma of depression drugs.  Rooney Mara plays the sane/not so sane young woman and keeps us guessing throughout the movie.  Jude Law plays the earnest doctor just trying to help.

Lots of plot twists make this a bit hard to follow.  It seeks the knockout punch of Traffic but just lands a few blows.

* * * of 4