Apparently Steven Soderbergh's last movie, is this an indictment of the psych pharma industry, a murder story, a fictionalization of the evils of some pills, a noir film or all or none of the above? The film opens with a trail of blood and the story of a young wife (Rooney Mara), her husband being released from jail (insider trading) and her suffering from paralyzing depression episodes that culminate in what seems to be a suicide attempt.
She starts seeing a psychiatrist (Jude Law) who makes a deal with a pharma company to participate in a study of a new pill that has a name that sounds like "obliterate". The psychiatrist seems like an OK guy, but perhaps a little too cavalier about prescribing the latest miracle depression pill. We've all heard the fast talking voice at the end of the pill ads, that usually seem to have "up to and including death" or suicide attempts or sleep driving or some such awful side effect. This shrink seems to have been sucked into a world of meds that he doesn't fully understand.
This is pretty good. At times, it's a little too slow and wordy. The plot, however, has as many twists as a mountain road and keeps you guessing as to just what is going on. Nothing is quite as good or evil as it seems, psychiatry is very confusing, full of imprecision and self delusion. Mara is excellent as the disturbed woman, as is Jude Law as the increasingly desperate and confused psychiatrist, who has found himself immersed in something that is very bad. Corporate corruption? Murder? Psychiatry as a scam? Which is it?
