Arts: Don?t Read Anything About Side Effects Before You See It (Except This)

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Brow Beat Don't Read Anything About Side Effects Before You See It (Except This) By Dan Kois Posted Thursday, Feb 07, 2013, at 03:16 PM ET What is Steven Soderbergh's new film, Side Effects, about? The title suggests something having to do with medication or pharmaceuticals, and the somewhat cryptic trailer confirms this, introducing us to a character played by Rooney Mara who battles depression, and the psychiatrist, played by Jude Law, who treats her. Sure. But what kind of movie is Side Effects? That's an entirely different question, and one that leads me to this simple piece of advice: Do not read anything about Side Effects. Don't read any reviews or profiles or even, if you can help it, headlines. For those headlines just might reveal that Side Effects is actually a… But here I'll stop. In general, I have no problem with spoilers; I've often argued that reading spoilers after a movie is released or a TV show airs is the price slowpokes have to pay for lively cultural discourse. Nevertheless, I understand that hardly anyone wants the plot of a movie spoiled ahead of time—it's no fun knowing that this character gets killed halfway through, or that it turns out that character is actually the bad guy. But those are micro-spoilers—plot twists that affect one's moment-to-moment enjoyment of a movie. Side Effects has plenty of twists, sure, but the thing I liked best about it was that it wasn't at all the kind of movie I thought it was. And so I am glad I avoided macro-spoilers, too: I never read a ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate So Your Boss Is Implicated in a Sex Scandal Everything You Wanted To Know About Quokkas, Courtesy of a Quokka When Did God Get Into the Wedding Business?	Advertisement
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