Side Effects (2005/Warner/New Line DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B-
After it went unnoticed as an independent DVD release, New
Line has picked up Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau’s underrated comedy Side
Effects (2005) and features an early, terrific performance by Katherine
Heigl before her rise to fame in Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up (both reviewed elsewhere on this site). Heigl lays Karly, a fine young lady and
college graduate just looking for a job that will pay well enough to get
by. Instead, she lucks out and becomes a
rep for a major drug firm who just happens to be ready to launch a brand new
wonder drug that will make living better for all who use it.
She even gets a company car and falls for a great guy, but
unfortunately, the drug is not what it is cracked up to be and may be far worse
than that. However, that is not
immediately apparent and Karly’s story is more than interesting enough to keep
watching throughout. Heigl is one of our
great new lead actresses and screen personalities, a beautiful, smart woman who
the camera loves and is slowly becoming a bigger and bigger star.
The film is well rounded, intelligent, mature and likable,
but some things limit it. If it is not
enough that the film may not go far enough in criticizing the industry in
getting anything approved just to make billions and push up a stock price, the
lack of criticism could easily have members of that industry write this off by
saying “see, we’re not that bad and that death was a fluke” or the like. Slattery-Moschkau tries to take the classy
approach, but that unfortunately has limited effects in this case. On the other hand, Karly is an intelligent,
able-bodied, three-dimensional woman of the kind we do not see enough
anywhere. Cheers to Heigl to bringing
her to convincing life.
This DVD may have been upgraded to anamorphically enhanced
from the older letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image, but it looks like the same master
and has the same flaws. Guess it will
take Blu-ray to show us just how nicely by cinematographer Carl F. Whitney, the
anamorphic treatment would have been nice.
The look is coyly commercial at times, not even unlike an ad for drugs
on TV, but there is more to the look in the form of nuance. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no real surrounds,
but is a nice new clean and clear recording, while the new Dolby 5.1 mix is
only so impressive and is also limited.
This is dialogue-based and only has so much sonically to offer. Extras include deleted scenes, a making of
featurette, outtakes/bloopers, Vixexx Commercial Contest Winner, Introduction
and Commentary by Director Slattery-Moschkau.
That lacks the stills or piece on the actual pharmaceutical industry the
other DVD had, but deleted scenes and outtakes/bloopers are fine new editions.
- Nicholas Sheffo
