It's difficult to escape the impression that the movie is impressed only with its cleverness.
– Wesley Morris,
Grantland,
3 Jan 2014
rotten:
Once Side Effects gets into its crime story, medication is swept aside by movie nonsense. The storyline goes into tangles that have to be dealt with very rapidly if the audience is not to start laughing.
– David Thomson,
The New Republic,
13 Jun 2013
fresh:
As a thriller in the Hitchcock mould, 'Side Effects' is great fun: its characters are well acted without being entirely likeable, which makes their jeopardy all the more enjoyable while putting us at a clinical remove.
– Ben Walters,
Time Out,
5 Mar 2013
fresh:
Soderbergh is less interested in making statements than he is in skillfully fulfilling genre expectations.
– Ian Buckwalter,
The Atlantic,
1 Mar 2013
fresh:
A crafty teaser that presents itself as one kind of film before gradually evolving into another kind altogether. I, for one, enjoyed both enormously.